Cala Homes applies to NFDC for permission to change Knightwood Chase development after Roman village unearthed

CHANGES to a major homes application following the discovery of Roman archaeology have sparked objections from homeowners and local councillors.

As recently reported, developer Cala Homes says it has incurred around £1 million in unforeseen costs after unearthing the remains of a Roman settlement at its Knightwood Chase development in Fordingbridge.

The archaeologists who discovered neolithic pottery at the site said it would have been in use for around 400 years from the Iron Age to the Roman era.

Cala says it now wants to increase the density of homes on the development site after its archaeological survey budget ballooned from an initial £53,000 to £1 million.

But planning authority New Forest District Council has so far received 12 letters of objection from locals calling for the proposed eleventh hour amendments to be rejected. Fordingbridge Town Council has also written to NFDC to oppose the changes.

Following a meeting with NFDC planning chiefs, the applicant has written to the authority to request a “minor-material amendment” under planning laws that would see a “substitution of private house types”.

The developer said the changes to the housing mix would maintain the approved 198 homes alongside the conversion of a number of car barns and ports to garages.

It now wants permission to make a “housing type substitution” on several plots, such as increasing the size of some of its three-bed homes to “improve achievable revenues”.

Cala said the changes “would have a minor material impact on the overall private housing mix”.

“For example, replacing a three-bedroom detached home with a four-bedroom detached home…resulting in a marginal increase in built footprint,” it said.

The developer proposed increasing the number of bedrooms in the development by changing some plots, giving an example of “replacing” a three-bedroom detached chalet bungalow with a four-bedroom detached home.

It said it has also identified an opportunity to convert approved car ports and barns to garages.

Fordingbridge Town Council said it had opposed the original application on grounds “the density of housing is consistent with an urban development, rather than a rural market town close to a national park”.

It continued: “This application for a variation…increases the density on this site, and this brings with it associated traffic and parking issues and will adversely impact the character of the development.”

Town councillors also said they would not wish to see any of the properties move closer to the site’s boundary with Ashford Close.

Residents have also hit out at the fresh plans, with one saying: “Development should not have been granted to start with.

“This amendment just increases the developer’s profit whilst still adding nothing to the local environment.

“The developer should have allowed more than £50,000 for archaeological research to start with. If this site could be archaeologically important then the development should be paused.”

Another objector wrote: “The worries concerning the true impacts of the development on the infrastructure of the town – an inability to access doctors and dentists, the increase in the levels of traffic, the state of the roads etc – are still valid and will be made worse if this proposal is not rejected.

“The increase in the footprint of the houses and garages will mean that the site impact on the surrounding area will be further increased.”

Another local wrote a letter of objection to NFDC, calling the proposed amendment “dangerous, destructive [and] completely unacceptable”.

NFDC has extended the deadline for people to comment on the proposed planning amendments until Monday 7th October.