52 new homes granted in Cannock

Tyler Parkes is delighted to have obtained detailed planning permission on behalf of Marshall Bell Ltd. for the erection of 52 homes including access, landscaping, and public open space at a site in Cannock.

The 1.8 hectare site, at the junction of Pye Green Road and Limepit Lane, comprises previously developed land including various mainly dilapidated outbuildings, a former dwelling, a cattery and caravan storage. The surrounding area is predominantly residential in character, including new dwellings on adjacent land forming part of the same residential allocation in the Local Plan as the application site. This proposal ‘rounds off’ the development in this location, in line with the wider development in the Pye Green area.

The applicants, Marshall Bell Ltd., are a locally based development company who have a track record of developing local sites for local people, and their aspiration was to develop this site to provide a range of quality but affordable houses.

The scheme provides a generous proportion of affordable homes as well as rent-to-buy and market units, together with almost half a hectare of public open space, comprised in a layout which reflects the aims of the Council’s original 2011 Development Brief for the wider area.

However, the Development Brief was somewhat out of date and the policies and approaches therein have changed since; combined with competing requirements from the various consultees, including highways, landscaping and layout issues, it was a challenging task to produce a layout which fulfilled the Client’s main aims but also ‘works’ in design and technical respects. There were also competing demands for financial contributions which had to be balanced, since the scheme would not have been viable if these were all to be met in full.

Following a number of meetings with the Council’s planning officers, who took a very positive approach and reached a consensus on all these issues, the application was recommended for approval at the Council’s Planning Control Committee on 16th January.

Members resolved to grant planning permission, upon completion of a S106 Agreement, to deliver the affordable housing, the public open space and various financial contributions.