Ringwood Town Council blasts Crest Nicholson over 443-home development at Moortown Lane as it’s set to be approved by NFDC

CONCERNS over a controversial plan for 443 homes in Ringwood have still not been addressed by the developer, the town council says, despite it being recommended for approval.

The hybrid application for the site, off Moortown Lane, is for full permission for 150 homes and outline permission for up to 293. The land, about 29 hectares, is earmarked for development in NFDC’s Local Plan.

It had been recommended for approval by council officers, but members of the planning committee deferred a decision at a meeting in September after it was suggested developer Crest Nicholson had ignored neighbourhood and local plans.

They ruled the developer should address concerns with Ringwood Town Council’s planning committee – a meeting which happened last Friday.

At a previous meeting with Ringwood Town Council and NFDC in September, Crest Nicholson agreed to boost the total number of two-bed homes in a bid to address concerns over a lack of smaller homes.

Overall the site would provide 40 one-bed homes, 181 two-bed, 126 three-bed and 96 properties of four-plus bedrooms. The total number of affordable dwellings would remain at 133, as before.

After the latest meeting, the town council says that while the “majority” of concerns raised in its earlier representations had been heard, they have still not been addressed.

This includes a dispute over access. Crest Nicholson is proposing access to the site from Moortown Lane, with delivery of a series of connecting roads to Crow Lane and Wellworthy Way as development progresses and properties are sold.

The town council maintains it will continue to object to the development without delivery of the access to the north, joining Wellworthy Way, and says there had been “no progress” on discussion about the roads with Hampshire County Council since the initial application.

Phase one of the scheme – which will see 150 homes built, with a mixture of one and two-bedroom flats and three and four-bedroom houses – would include gas boilers as per standard building regulations. The town council says no evidence has been provided that compliance with zero carbon measures, such as heat source pumps, would not be feasible.

It is also unhappy with a lack of first homes, insufficient alternative natural recreational greenspace, and the size of properties, some of which would be two-and-a-half and three storeys high.

“It is difficult to see how the proposed housing has taken into account the character of Ringwood,” the updated town council objection to NFDC states, adding: “The house types proposed are standard ones that Crest Nicholson have built on other development sites.

“If the development is built as currently described, a resident standing in it would not be able to determine if they were in Ringwood, or in Windsor, or in Henley.”

As the site cannot provide enough alternative natural recreational greenspace (ANRG) the developer has also applied for a change of use on land adjacent to Crow Lane. If approved it would turn agricultural fields into public open space.

The town council says this is unacceptable as the land is outside of the strategic site, proposals for access are “unrealistic”, and the New Forest National Park Authority is against its change of use.

The objection concludes: “Were it the case that the proposals were non-compliant with relevant policies in a few minor respects, we would accept the argument that the need to build more housing is such that the applications should be granted.

“However, in this case the sheer number and scale of deviations from policy are such that the weighted balance must tip in favour of refusal.

“The applicants need, with respect, to go back to their drawing boards and to devise a scheme that is compliant with relevant policies.”

However, NFDC planners have again recommended the scheme be approved when it comes before the NFDC’s planning committee next Wednesday.

A report to the committee states: “Officers conclude that the adverse impacts of the proposal would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits when assessed against the policies of the framework when taken as a whole.”

It adds the development would make a “significant contribution” towards the district’s affordable housing needs.