Preston planners set to refuse Broughton homes

After a decision was deferred earlier this month, plans to build 95 homes next to the Broughton Bypass are set to be rejected by Preston Council next week.

The 11-acre site sits off Garstang Road, and borders the £32m Broughton Bypass, a new link road which completed in October 2017. It is currently open countryside, and sits outside the border of Broughton village under Preston’s Local Plan.

The applicant, Gladman, is proposing to keep around four acres of the site as open space, while 35% of the home son the site are designated as affordable. Access is proposed via Garstang Road.

The application had been recommended for approval at Preston Council’s planning committee at the beginning of March, but a decision was deferred; the proposals will now return to the committee next week, but this time with a recommendation to refuse.

The reason cited for deferral in early March was that “extra time” was needed to consider two further representations on the application.

Earlier this month, planning officers said the scheme should be approved, arguing: “Given the site’s location adjacent to the existing village, it is considered the development would be located in a sustainable location within walking distance of existing facilities within the village.”

This approval was subject to a Section 106 agreement being concluded by early March; if this was not agreed, a decision to refuse would be put forward.

As a result, in papers due to go before next week’s committee, the same planning officers have instead argued for refusal: “The proposed development would be contrary to the hierarchy of locations for focussing growth and investment at urban, brownfield and allocated sites and would lead to an unplanned and inappropriate expansion of a rural village.”

The scheme has also attracted a series of objections from local MP Ben Wallace, Broughton Parish Council, and local councillor Neil Cartwright.

The objections focus on the fact the land is not allocated for development under the council’s Local Plan, while Wallace argued the council could already demonstrate a three-year supply of housing land. Meanwhile, Cartwright raised issues over highway capacity, particularly along the A6 and where it meets the M55.

Preston’s planning committee is due to make a decision on the scheme on 4 April.