THE green light has been given to an outline planning application that could see up to 342 homes built in Fordingbridge.

New Forest District Council’s planning committee on Thursday, September 29 voted in favour of giving delegated authority to the executive head of planning, regeneration and economy to grant permission for the development subject to conditions.

The application submitted by Pennyfarthing Homes Ltd is for a residential development, change of use of land to Alternative Natural Recreational Greenspace and on-site infrastructure on land to the west of Whitsbury Road.

The site comprises the main part of Strategic Site 17, which was earmarked for development in the district council's local plan. 

The number of houses proposed in the application has been reduced and was previously 403. The scheme is part of a wider masterplan covering a number of different phases of development.

As part of this development a roundabout would be built along with a bridge over Sweatford Waters. Access into the site will be formed from a new roundabout on Whitsbury Road which will replace the existing T junction serving Augustus Park.

What the developers said

Pennyfarthing Homes strategic planning manager, Guy Peirson-Hagger, said the application was "underpinned by a raft of technical studies" and also quoted comments from the officer's report stating the site would deliver "significant benefits" for residents on the site and the wider town in terms of recreational opportunities. 

He also quoted statements from the council's landscape team who were "satisfied with the good design indicated" and would "provide many new homes in a high quality living environment".

Traffic concerns and calls for link road

The application has attracted opposition from both residents and Fordingbridge Town Council.

Local resident Louise Tonkin spoke of her “overwhelming concern” over traffic as well as the levels of affordable housing. She also spoke of concerns about the phasing of developments in the town and the time it could take for road infrastructure to be put in place.

Cllr Diane Paton, who chairs Fordingbridge Town Council’s planning committee, echoed concerns over traffic and emphasised the need for a link road, which is due to delivered as part of a different application for site 18, and said the timing of its provision was "critical in respect of the cumulative impact traffic generated by both schemes will have on the town.”

She also asked if any financial support or other measures could be given “to hasten the provision” of this link road.

District Councillor for Fordingbridge Ann Bellows in a letter also added her voice to calls that a link road was needed to be in place before development work started which needed to be guaranteed.

She said: “As one of the ward councillors for Fordingbridge I feel that it is not in the interests of Fordingbridge town for me to support this application in its present form due to the lack of guarantee.”

District Cllr Maureen Holding was also worried over the road infrastructure and warned of the “enormous impact” it would have adding that it needed to be in place before a lot of building starts “otherwise there will be chaos there for people trying to move around”.

The meeting heard that provision of a link road would be the subject of a separate application with discussions ongoing around that scheme and delivery. Ongoing discussion over management of ANRG was also ongoing.

The meeting was also told that the implications of the site 17 development have been considered and Highways were satisfied that there was capacity for it and there were “no technical objections” to the proposals.

Councillors were told by the planning officer that it was not possible to put a condition requiring the link road to be complete prior to the start of site 17.

Affordable housing 

As a result of costs associated with some of the infrastructure need and viability considerations affordable housing levels had been changed to 25 per cent - 85 units - made up of 21 First Homes, 24 affordable rent and 40 shared ownership. 

Fordingbridge district Cllr Ann Sevier said affordable homes were “needed in Fordingbridge” and there was a large number of people on the waiting list to get social and rentable housing. She also expressed disappointment not to have as many affordable and rentable homes that were “desperately needed”.

What councillors said

Cllr Sue Bennison said she felt sympathy for Fordingbridge because of the “huge amount development” in the area but that it was in the local plan. Speaking about the application before the council she said it was “nicely set out” and “preserving open spaces and woodland area” and there was a lot of screening around the site. In relation to the changes in the level of affordable housing she said it was “quite acceptable” with the types of homes that people would want.

Cllr Anne Corbridge said she was always disappointed to see levels of affordable housing pushed down but there were valid reasons why this had happened.

However, Cllr Christine Hopkins warned over the widening these country lanes and couldn’t understand “the sense in destroying the countryside to this extent” and therefore could not support large developments such as this.

Cllr Maureen Holding said: “I feel that the whole thing is really like an apology. The officers have put a lot of work into this but it is getting people do not want. Fordingbridge was a beautiful village”.

“I do feel soon we’ll be talking about the city of Fordingbridge and the city of Ringwood and that sort of area because it is expanding so much,” she added.

“We’ve got to be very careful because we’re in a wonderful beautiful place here that we could soon destroy. It is very fragile.”

She said: “When it comes down to it most people really don’t like this.”

Committee chairman Christine Ward said the site had been designated for development in the district council’s local plan.

Six councillors voted in favour while there were three against and one abstention from Cllr Sevier.