'Build bungalows if you want planning permission,' developer told

A housebuilder has been told that it will have to include bungalows as part of a proposed estate in Farington Moss before councillors will grant planning permission for the development.
Residents say the planned development would be out of character with the existing properties in the areaResidents say the planned development would be out of character with the existing properties in the area
Residents say the planned development would be out of character with the existing properties in the area

Kier Homes wants to build 175 properties on land off Croston Road, but has been met with opposition from locals who claim the new homes will not be in-keeping with the area.

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Planning officers at South Ribble Borough Council had recommended the application be approved on that basis – but members of the authority’s planning committee called for further concessions after residents lined up to condemn the proposal.

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Croston Road resident Tim Holmes told the meeting that bungalows would be more “sympathetic” to the area.

Another local, George Cox, said he could not see how the proposed properties were “anything like” those already in the neighbourhood.

“I’ve worked 30 years to have a nice property in this area – and I don’t see why it should be blighted by cramming so many new ones in,” he said.

Outline planning permission for a wider 350-home development has been in place since 2013. Miller Homes has already started work on its part of the site.

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Paul Walton, a director of PWA Planning, working on behalf of Kier Homes, told the committee that the developer had demonstrated that it wanted to work “positively and in a spirit of co-operation”.

Committee member Phil Smith said residents had been “watching sunsets out of their windows for many years and so nothing else should satisfy us other than bungalows [adjacent to existing properties]”.

Councillors voted unanimously to defer a decision on the application to ask Kier Homes to rethink the housing mix of for the site.

The development will contain 27 properties classed as affordable, equating to 15 percent of the total – half of the proportion usually demanded by planners in South Ribble. However, the council has instead requested that the company pay a sum of £950,000 towards to the building of affordable homes elsewhere in the borough, in areas with more established infrastructure.

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Cllr Barrie Yates said it would be a better if the necessary services were installed close to the proposed development.

“Where are we going to put the other 15 percent of affordable homes – in the centre of Leyland or Bamber Bridge?” he asked.

There was also anger over the fact that a dozen properties will be accessed via shared driveways on Bannister Lane – described as “tertiary access”.

One resident said that made a mockery of a promise not to use the road for “primary or secondary access” to the estate.

“It’s a bit of a con,” Mike Randle said.

The Kier Homes estate would allow the completion of a so-called “spine” for pedestrians and cycles which is planned to run through the wider development.

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