New planning application for affordable homes to rent near Longridge

An application to build 52 new affordable-to rent homes on a green field site has been submitted to Preston Council.
Halfpenny LaneHalfpenny Lane
Halfpenny Lane

The application for the Halfpenny Lane site on the outskirts of Longridge has been made by Andrew Garnett of MCI Developments and housing group Places for People.

If the proposals for the “affordable rent” homes get the go-ahead the existing property at 20 Halfpenny Lane would be demolished.

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Whittingham Parish Council will meet next month to give its opinion on the application for the site on the outskirts of Longridge.

But Parish Council clerk Julie Buttle has warned that there are already local concerns about the need for development of a site which was never included in Preston Council’s housing strategy.

She said: “It’s green fields and it wasn’t meant to be for new development. The site was not allocated for development in the core strategy”

The owner/agricultural tenant listed as having been consulted on the application are Daniel Joseph and Victoria Jane Slater of The Lodge,20 Halfpenny Lane.

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Julie Buttle added that there are also concerns that local infrastructure will not cope with yet more new properties.

She said: “We’re talking about everything really.”

Julie said there were fears that roads, drainage and public transport would not be able to cope with the pressures of yet another housing development. Meanwhile permission had already been obtained for more than 400 homes on the nearby former Ridings site and these included a percentage of affordable housing. John Wright, the Regional Development Manager at Places For People has written to Preston Council with a supporting statement noting that property and neighbourhood management company Places for People Homes, an “industrial and provident society” would offer the new homes at affordable rents. He said: “The homes will be delivered with the assistance of Homes England affordable housing grant subsidy.”

He added that on 2013 estimates from a Preston housing needs and demand survey the annual shortfall of affordable housing in the borough is 615 homes a year.

Residents have until November 8 to comment to Preston City Council. It was initially proposed the site would provide 45 homes and eight flats, but the number of properties has been reduced to 52.