Wells Rugby Club, Charter Way. Planning Application

Following an opinion piece that I posted on the Civic Society website, the Wells City Council Planning Committee reviewed a revised design on 8 August, for the scheme submitted by the developer, Stonewater.  I attended the meeting and expressed my concerns to the committee on behalf of the Wells Civic Society.

Stonewater are a provider of social housing.  The proposed development consists of 100% affordable housing against a standard set in National Housing Policy of 40%.  For the majority of new developments, the bulk of the housing is “open market” which by its nature can provide superior offerings at prices that provide a profit to the developer.

The initial scheme proposed by Stonewater consisted of 106 units which contrasts with the Neighbourhood Plan for Wells which specified 80 units.  There were objections raised against the design which can be broadly summarised as:

• Lack of provision to allow for the natural extension of the Strawberry Line and existing rights of way along the site boundaries.

• Failure to retain mature trees and provide bio diversity net gain.

• Failure to confirm to the design codes in the Neighbourhood Plan.

• Failure to comply with disability design codes.

• No contribution to community infrastructure through either section 106 or CIL payments

The resubmission by Stonewater pays little regard to these objections. The number of units has been reduced by one so that the total is now 105 rather than 106.  The revision results in the route of the Strawberry Line being  diverted into the housing development along a pavement fronting houses and car parking spaces.   The width of the pavement is inadequate to accommodate the volume of multi user traffic which uses the  Strawberry Line.  Users of the Strawberry Line would have to contend with vehicles and householders accessing their properties.

In all other respects, the development fails to address any of the deficiencies of the original design.

Planning regulations allow minimum of 1.5 parking spaces per house.  However, Somerset Highways department have requested that an allowance of 2 spaces per household be provided to guard against overspill into other adjacent housing.  This stipulation suggests that Somerset foresee at least 210 additional vehicles being associated with the site and the obvious impact this will have on the junction onto the Portway and predicts that occupiers of the development will not use active travel options.

What is particularly disappointing is that the Charter Way site is a prime location.  It adjoins the leisure centre, has or should have direct access to the active travel route both into and out of Wells.  It is within easy walking distance of the High Street.  We should be seeing a high quality development consisting of both open market housing and affordable properties.  That formula would allow developers to generate sufficient return from sales to allow the concerns to be addressed without the need to squeeze in extra units.  Instead, Stonewater argue that it is necessary to increase the density of housing by 25% in order to ensure viability of the site.  This may be attractive to Somerset Council in that is assists them in addressing shortfalls against their immediate housing targets but this short term expediency comes at a cost to Wells and the wider communities of Somerset.

Chris Charles, Chair of Wells Civic Society Planning sub-committee - this is a personal opinion piece and so may not reflect the views of the Civic Society as a whole.