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Council rejects 377-home housing association scheme
A housing association’s application to build 377 homes on a site near Milton Keynes has been rejected.
Grand Union Housing Group submitted plans for the development on pastural land between the M1 and the River Great Ouse by the town of Newport Pagnell in November last year.
However, Milton Keynes Council’s development control committee rejected the application on Thursday night.
An officer’s report to the committee had recommended that planning permission be refused.
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The 11,000-home housing association had offered to build 81 of the homes immediately and agreed to the council’s policy that 30% of the scheme should be affordable housing, including 5% for social rent or equivalent and 5% for shared ownership.
It had also agreed to make Section 106 and Community Infrastructure Levy payments totalling £8.8m.
The officer’s report said the scheme would be “a significant contribution towards making up the shortfall in housing in the borough”.
But it concluded that “any benefits of the scheme are significantly outweighed by its unsustainable location, and inadequate cycle and pedestrian linkages to essential services for resident”.
The development would not be sustainable because it would be “detrimental to the open, rural character of the locality”, impact wildlife, cause congestion on nearby roads, and did not include “adequate” access for pedestrians and bicycles, it added.
And it said Grand Union had “failed to adequately mitigate” concerns about increased traffic and road safety.
There were also fears that the homes would be too far from amenities, after Highways England rejected a proposal for a footpath on a nearby bridge over the M1.
Milton Keynes Council is currently consulting the public on its new local plan.
The site in question is outside the “development boundary” outlined in the authority’s 2001-2011 local plan from 2005, which states that developments should only be approved in open countryside “where it is essential for agriculture, forestry, countryside recreation or other development which is wholly appropriate to a rural area and cannot be located within a settlement”.
The planning officer’s report said Grand Union had not provided evidence that its application met these criteria.
Milton Keynes Council’s highways officer, nearby parish councils and 247 individuals had objected to the plans, but an online petition in favour of the development gained more than 900 signatures.
Aileen Evans, chief executive of Grand Union Housing Group, said: “Naturally, we are disappointed with the outcome of the planning application.
“We understand that Milton Keynes Council have some concerns, but we hope that by working together with them, we can address these and help to overcome the housing crisis Milton Keynes currently faces.”
