Plans for 100 new homes in the Preston countryside

That is the argument being made by developers behind plans for a new estate in Broughton, which has been refused planning permission twice in less than five years.

The proposal would see the properties – half of which would be in the discounted ‘affordable homes’ category’ – constructed to the south of a development of 98 houses known as Acorn Meadows.

The dwellings on that site – previously named Broughton Park – were approved in August 2019, during a period when Preston City Council was unable to show that it had a five-year supply of land set aside to meet targets for new housing.

Failure to meet that government requirement meant the authority was often obliged to permit developments in places where it otherwise would refuse them – including the open countryside. The council is currently in the same position again, for what it expects will be a brief period – prompting AAB Developments and Lester Developments to resubmit their plans.

The applicants claim that the nearly completed neighbouring estate and the ongoing conversion of a nearby warehouse into housing – both of which also lie beyond the Broughton village boundary – have led to a “significant change to the context” of the location.

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In documents submitted to the city authority, they state that the proposed site is “markedly annexed from the wider countryside and its development would be a finite rounding-off [of] the urban area”, which would not undermine the wider countryside.

If approved, the development would be accessed from Norshaw Crescent, within the Acorn Meadows scheme.

Only outline permission has been applied for, meaning details of the house types to be built would be submitted for consideration at a late date. However, the applicants note that there is “scope” to deliver some bungalows and adapted housing to meet the needs of older residents.

Around 40 percent of the proposed plot would be given over to green and open space, a feature that the applicants say would also benefit the existing residents of Acorn Meadows, which does not boast any similar facilities of its own.