Ribble Valley Borough Council flexes its muscles and refuses 132 new homes in a week

Plans for 132 homes in the Ribble Valley have been refused in the space of a week.

Ribble Valley Borough Council (RVBC) refused three separate applications of varying sizes, flexing its muscles despite previously warning that “the balance is now stacked in favour of developers and speculative development.”

The largest application was by Persimmon Homes for 80 homes on land to the east of Salesbury View, Wilpshire. More than 150 people objected to the proposal, on grounds that it would mean the los of a much-loved hill-side area and would put extra pressures on doctors and dentists.

Planning chiefs agreed with the concerns, and threw the plans out. This follows on from two previously unsuccessful applications for the site.

The latest decision notice states that the proposed development “fails to be visually attractive and sympathetic to the area's character by virtue of the layout, density, house types and scales, inadequate green buffers and significant level changes to the landform, appearing overly dominant and incongruous in the street scene and from wider public viewpoints to the detriment of visual amenity.” It also determines that the proposed development would fail to provide suitable access routes, to and from the site as well as within it, for all users, in particular those people with disabilities and reduced mobility, by virtue of the topography of the site and steep incline up Salesbury View.

Pringle Homes have also seen an application for 26 affordable dwellings on land at Albany Drive, Copster Green refused. RVBC said the location was unsustainable and there would be a reliance on private motor vehicle by occupiers. They also said that the scale and layout ‘would represent poor design which would result in a cramped form of development that fails to positively respond to the character of the area’, and the development would be overbearing on the amenity of the occupiers of 12 Brown Leaves Grove.

Thirdly, a plan for six homes on land to the rear of The Nook, Snodworth Road, Langho was rejected. Planning bosses said it constitutes inappropriate development within the Green Belt and was an unsustainable location.

The refusals come after RVBC said increased housing targets set by the Government and the requirement to maintain sufficient land supply to meet those targets meant the balance is now stacked in favour of developers and speculative development.

Speaking in July when the Government overturned a decision to refuse 300 new homes near Langho railway station, Councillor Lee Street, chairman of the council’s planning and development committee, said: “The current planning system is making resisting such development increasingly difficult, with a risk of significant cost to council taxpayers when defending appeals.

“However, we will continue to work with developers and landowners as best we can to secure the best possible outcomes for our communities, including the provision of genuinely affordable housing in the right locations, with supporting infrastructure and environmental protections.”