Chilcompton Parish Council

 

We recommend refusal of Planning Application 2021/0421/OTS for outline permission to build up to 95 houses in 2 green fields off Naish’s Cross, Chilcompton, for the following reasons:

 

Background

Chilcompton is a village of approximately 2,000 people and is regarded as a Primary Village by Mendip District Council, on the grounds of the presence of amenities such as a primary school, a shop, a doctors surgery, and 2 public houses, as well as bus routes. This classification led to the MDC Local Plan Part 1 (2006 – 2029), adopted in 2014, allocating a total of 70 houses to be built in the village as our contribution to Mendip’s Housing Supply. However, up to the present day, permissions for a total of 180 houses have been granted by MDC, meaning that we have met and exceeded our allocation by more than 250%.

 

This excessive development has led to the school becoming oversubscribed, to the extent that there is currently a waiting list for prospective pupils. The parents of those children who are unsuccessful in gaining entry have to find places elsewhere. This has recently become more difficult due to Bath & North East Somerset Council reversing their previous policy, which was to allow children from Chilcompton to attend schools in Midsomer Norton and Radstock.

 

The current pandemic has of course placed a burden on Chilcompton Surgery, but even before the last year, the growth in the village population has made getting an appointment increasingly difficult.

 

In June 2016 there was a major flood in the lower part of the village during a heavy rainstorm, and every Chilcompton resident is now very conscious that any development on the higher slopes increases the risk of a repeat, due to loss of grassed areas to soak up rainfall.

 

When Local Plan Part 1 was first drafted, and the decision made to make Chilcompton a Primary Village, we enjoyed several different bus routes, and travelling by bus to neighbouring towns like Frome and Shepton Mallet was straightforward. Now, however, we are down to a single bus route, offering one bus per hour in each direction between Wells and Bath, with no buses at all after 7pm or on Sundays. This, as well as the growth in the village population, has led to a huge increase in traffic on our roads, which apart from the main B3139 running east to west, are all narrow and mostly without pavements or footways.

 

In recognition of all this, Mendip’s emerging Local Plan Part 2 has made no changes to the existing development limits in Chilcompton, and has allocated no further houses to our village. In March 2020 Gladman proposed a Main Modification to the emerging LPP2 to add the 2 fields proposed in this application, plus the adjoining 2 fields, to our village building envelope but this land was not included in the emerging Local Plan Part 2.

 

Material Considerations

1.     Overshadowing

The homes on the eastern side of Stockhill Road adjacent to the development site are almost all low profile bungalows, which would inevitably be overshadowed by the much larger properties indicated in the outline plan.

2.     Overlooking, loss of privacy or overbearing nature of proposal

Although this is only an outline application, the sheer number of houses proposed on a 4.65 hectare site would mean that many of the existing homes in Hoecroft, Hoecroft Gardens, and Stockhill Road would inevitably be overlooked, with a resulting loss of privacy.

3.     Design & Appearance, impact on public visual amenity

Chilcompton is a rural village with clearly defined boundaries. The green fields proposed for this development are currently on the south-eastern periphery of the village and provide a visual amenity enjoyed by most of the houses in the roads adjacent to the site, as well as recreational walkers. Replacing these green fields with any type of housing, together with service roads, fencing, garages etc., would have a catastrophic and harmful visual impact.

4.     Layout & Density of building

Again, the indicative layout in this outline plan shows a density of housing in a 4.65 ha site incompatible with the surrounding roads. The Design Statement shows a building density of 35 dwellings per hectare which is more appropriate for a town than a rural village.

5.     Effect on listed buildings and/or conservation areas

Not applicable

6.     Loss of trees

There are many mature trees in the ancient hedgerows which cross the site, and also many in the gardens of the existing houses ajoining the site. It is inevitable that disturbance to the root systems of many of these trees would occur during the building phase of this development. While there is an indicated tree-planting programme in the Design Statement, these proposed trees would take many years to reach maturity, and any shortfall of mature trees in the meantime is unacceptable.

7.     Loss of ecological habitats

Any loss of these ancient fields and hedgerows will inevitably destroy irreplaceable ecosystems, and is therefore completely unacceptable.

8.     Access, highways safety, or traffic generation

The proposed access to the site off Naish’s Cross on the B3356 is adjacent to a dangerous blind bend a few yards to the east, with a pinch point immediately to the west. At present, there is not room at this pinch point for two vehicles to pass, and a voluntary de facto priority system is therefore already in operation. The B3356 is a very busy road, used by heavy and light goods vehicles from the New Rock and South Rock industrial units, as well as HGV’s from the Massey Wilcox haulage depot in Broadway, Chilcompton. The road is, of course, also used by the workforce commuting to the industrial units, and as a shortcut for HGVs accessing the A367 south of Stratton-on-the-Fosse. Mendip District Council in November 2020 approved the addition of 17 new industrial units at South Rock, which will inevitably lead to an increase in traffic on the B3356 past the proposed development site.

 

A development of 95 houses is likely to lead to in excess of 200 additional cars on the narrow, already overcrowded roads in Chilcompton. As previously mentioned, the B3356, as well as Rock Road to the north and New Rock Road to the south east of the site are all very poorly provided with footways, which poses a road safety hazard to pedestrians at present. While the Design Statement mentions provision of a new footway, it is unclear how far this would extend from the site entrance, and in any case, the existing roads are too narrow to accommodate footways.

 

With the inadequacy of public transport in Chilcompton, and the lack of prospective local employment, it is obvious that the occupants of the proposed 95 houses will have to drive to wherever they happen to find work in neighbouring towns and beyond. This places yet more traffic on our already overcrowded roads, with the concomitant increased risks to road safety and increased environmental pollution.

9.     Inadequate parking & servicing

The indicative drawings of the outline plan do not give a clear enough picture of the adequacy of parking and service provision.

10. Noise, smells, or disturbance from the scheme

The upheaval, not only to the neighbouring properties, but to the whole of Chilcompton during the estimated 2 years to build this development will be intolerable and unacceptable. All building materiel would have to be brought to the site via busy, narrow roads with inadequate footways. The existing sewers and storm drains are old and inadequate to bear the increased burden, so new sewers would have to be provided. Stockhill Road, Naish’s Cross, New Rock Road, and Rock Road would need to be excavated to link with the sewers in Wells Road. These are all busy, narrow roads, and normal life would become impossible for the foreseeable future.

11. Flood risk

Chilcompton residents are highly sensitised to any possibility of increased risk of flooding. The current storm drain capacity is, according to Wessex Water, only just sufficient for current requirements, without the increased runoff from 95 new houses, driveways, and service roads. Rock Road, which runs downhill to the north of the site, has no storm drains at all, and rain water thus runs down the side of the road into a drain at the junction with the B3139 Wells Road. In heavy rain, this drain always overflows, leading to flooding lower down Wells Road to the east, opposite the Village Hall. This happens several times a year. We are not satisfied that an adequate SUDS attenuation system is planned to mitigate the extra runoff caused by this development.

12. Other reason

The National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) states that housing developments must demonstrate sustainability by achieving 3 overarching objectives:

 

The economic objective means that infrastructure has to be adequate to support the development. Clearly Chilcompton’s infrastructure is already overstretched and inadequate. The fact that most residents in the new houses will have to drive significant distances to find work reduces any potential economic benefit to Chilcompton. Children will have to be driven to school, either by their parents or by bus, and the latter places an economic burden on the local authority;

 

The social objective means among other things that communities have to be strong and healthy, with adequate open spaces and “fostering a well-designed and safe built environment”. By its very nature, this development threatens the very health and safety of our community;

 

The environmental objective requires developments to “contribute to protecting and enhancing our natural, built, and historic environment; including making effective use of land, helping to improve biodiversity, using natural resources prudently, minimizing waste and pollution, and mitigating and adapting to climate change, including moving to a low-carbon economy.” We see nothing in this application which achieves any part of the environmental objective.

 

Conclusion

Chilcompton Parish Council, for all the above reasons, believes that this application is unsustainable, undesirable, and would do irreparable harm to our community in terms of increased risk to road safety and increased flood risk. It would do irreparable damage to the environment, and significant harm to the visual amenity, and must therefore be refused.

 

We ask that MDC Planning Board members make a site visit so they may see all this for themselves.

 

Passed by Chilcompton Parish Council Planning Subcommittee, 24 March 2020.

 

If MDC was to pass this application then the PC would be looking for 106 funds for school, surgery, transport, environmental issues and more.