Homes in Longridge tipped to be blocked

It is one of the first applications which planners at Preston City Council (PCC) have advised councillors to refuse after an appeal decision over housing in South Ribble means Preston can now show a five-year land supply for homes.

The application for the land off Halfpenny Lane, Longridge, from PWA Planning is coming before councillors at a planning meeting on Thursday. And the ruling from the inspector means that the housing strategy outlined in Preston’s Local Plan can be adhered to.

In summing up its reasons for recommending refusal, city council documents say the development would be “contrary to the hierarchy of locations for focussing growth and investment at urban, brownfield and allocated sites”.

The minimum homes Preston is now required to build each year is 241. Documents state: “Against this minimum requirement, the council can currently demonstrate a five- year supply of deliverable housing land.”

Historic England lodged an objection to the plans raising concerns about the application on heritage grounds.

Officers at PCC found that the development “would be harmful to the surrounding rural character, particularly due to its unjustified impact on the setting of a grade II listed building (Ashes Farmhouse) and its wider landscape setting”

“It is considered the proposal fails to demonstrate how harm to the setting of the Grade II listed building would be avoided.”

A new housing target, yet to be agreed, is to be shared throughout Central Lancashire and means Preston’s housing requirement will be 410 houses a year.