480 Homes Refused But Louth Will Still Grow

January 6th 2018

On Thursday, January 4th ELDC's planning committee met, and the first application it considered was a plan for 480 homes on land off Brackenborough Road. In fact, to describe the location that way diminishes the impact of this plan. It actually connects to Brackenborough Road at one point, but goes behind the entire series of estates off Brackenborough Road and Keddington Road in an inverse L-shape, to emerge with a connection off Keddington Road at the far end. The plans are massive, and the largest to affect Louth since the Southern Gateway proposals for 970 homes, which were also rejected.

Amanda Young spoke passionately about the traffic conditions, and outlined objections on behalf of the residents. Then Cllr David Hall spoke on behalf of the town council, giving 11 reasons that the committee should consider refusal. The ward member, Cllr Green, highlighted a number of objections from statutory consultees.

ELDC planning's decision

The decision to refuse was unanimous apart from one abstention. This was in line with the planning officer's recommendation, which cited two main factors: the lack of information about a suitable plan for drainage, and the fact that the majority of the site isn't allocated for housing on the emerging Local Plan, which would mean it would be growth out into open countryside. A report on offsite drainage hadn't been submitted, although the committee heard one had been carried out in December. However, there was no confirmation that the developer's plan for drainage would be to the County Council's satisfaction.

A spokesman for the developer argued against both of these points, but between the officer's recommendation and the objections raised by other speakers, the committee decided against allowing 480 houses.

You can listen to the audio recording of the meeting: the item begins 4.19 minutes in and speakers start at about 30 minutes in.

170 more

The developers have the option to appeal the decision. Whether they do or not, they're certainly hedging their bets because they have already submitted plans for 170 homes on a subsection of the site. This is for two of the fields on the north-west section of the site, connected on Brackenborough Road.

There are 129 homes allocated on the Local Plan on the field furthest west, and the planning committee will give a lot of weight to allocations on that scheme.

The planning committee made the right decision. Had it been approved, this development would have unbalanced Louth and put a huge strain on the town's roads and drainage infrastructure. It would have cut into open countryside to a significant degree.

Other plans

On December 15th I presented a petition to Lincolnshire County Council about the need to resurface St Bernard's Avenue. This is just one of the infrastructure improvements needed as a result of housing growth in the town. As part of my speech, I mentioned 1187 homes that are either built or have existing planning permissions in Louth.

That number changes frequently as house building continues and new permissions are granted every month. The town may have avoided a development that could have seen it grow by over 5% in one stroke, but more than twice the growth of the Brackenborough development is already in the pipeline.