AN OUTLINE application, for up to 115 homes, east of Lodden Lakes at Gillingham has been approved by Dorset Council – with a scheme for 80 homes elsewhere, rejected by just one vote.
The approved Taylor Wimpey development is the second phase of a larger scheme off New Road, close to the Brickfields industrial estate.
Councillors heard that the 6.75 hectare scheme will include 25% ‘affordable’ housing and make financial contributions to laying out a new principal street and to bus and rail improvements in the area. Other contributions would be made to a community hall, local play area, informal open space along the River Lodden and for school provision and the NHS.
Gillingham town council supported the scheme and there were only three letters submitted, including one supporting the scheme: “Cannot wait for more details of these houses. As a family with two children at High School in town the location is perfect and hopeful some houses will be affordable for my husband and I (both teachers) to be able to get on the housing ladder.”
Local councillor and planning brief holder Cllr David Walsh said the proposal was the final part of the jigsaw for the town’s southern extension of more than 2,000 homes and had not been opposed: “Let’s get on with it,” he said.
Earlier the committee rejected, on a 5-4 vote, an application for 80 homes on a site to the west of the town.
The 4 hectare site, alongside the BUPA Mellowes nursing home off Common Mead Lane, had been ear-marked for recreational use in the neighbourhood plan.
The proposal for housing had been met with opposition by more than 120 local people and the town council.
Many letters from objectors claimed that the town had already met the 2,200 homes the area was judged to need and asked councillors to reject the outline application for the site.
Ward councillors Val Pothecary and Belinda Rideout both spoke against the application at the Tuesday area planning meeting.
Cllr Pothecary said the site was outside the settlement boundary and was in conflict with several planning strategies; had no bus route into town and would add to the risk to pedestrians and cyclists using roads and lanes in the area, including adjoining Common Mead Lane which many local drivers used as a rat run to avoid other routes.
“There is no real gain for the community,” she told the meeting.
Cllr Rideout claimed the site was not sustainable and did not respect the rural character of the area at 22 homes per hectare, compared to the neighbouring site which only had 13 per hectare. Gillingham town council raised similar objections in their comments adding that building on the site would also be harmful to the setting of Queen’s Farm, associated with the former Royal Forest.
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