The government inspector considering the appeal against the refusal by Ribble Valley Borough Council to grant planning permission to the VH Partnership Partnership for 123 Houses Behind Higher Road demolishing 74 Higher Road to gain access ; has decided to hold a full appeal hearing in the Ribble Valley Council Chamber on the 17th of April. The original plan was to deal with the appeal on paper.
Longridge Dilworth Councillor Ken Hind has called a meeting of the objectors on the 09th of April at the station rooms to discuss the approach to take in the enquiry. ''I am advised the proceedings will last a day and council officials feel the inspector will probably visit the site in the afternoon .It is likely that the Inspector will allow a small number of objectors to speak and this will be in the morning of the 17th.”
''This is one of those applications driven by agents on behalf of landowners which has no builder behind it highlighted by Country File, the BBC TV programme very recently showing how these planning applications are driven with a view to turning landowners into millionaires.”
''The main arguments in the enquiry will be based on the Ribble Valley Borough Core Strategy which sets out Longridge as one of 3 growth areas in the borough with 1160 homes allocated over a 20 year period to 2028 with a reduction of 200 due to what was expected to be built on sites in Preston next to the town.”
''To date a total of approximately 1159 have been granted planning consent with 10 years of the Core Strategy or development plan to go ahead. This is over 200 more than the Core Strategy allowed. There is an adequate supply of new homes in Longridge and RVBC has a 5 year supply of development land for new homes, which is a crucial argument in this appeal. If each of the major developers Barratts and Taylor Wimpey builds 30 homes a year each, this delivers an adequate number per year.”
''The City of Preston have granted applications for 552 homes on land and green fields immediately adjacent to Longridge. These applications have only been made because Longridge exists and it extends the town albeit not in the Ribble Valley .Preston have no strategic plan for Longridge and can grant applications on a case by case basis providing the the application is made in their area .These figures show the market in Longridge is saturated. There is no established need for these homes and therefore their construction is not economically sustainable.”
''The Inspector needs in reality to consider the 552 homes approved by Preston City Council on the fields between Derby Street and Halfpenny Lane which is immediately adjacent to the centre of Longridge. This means that planning consents have been granted in Longridge by the 2 authorities for 1400 houses which are currently awaiting construction which will have to be commenced within the next 3 years.”
''The infrastructure of Longridge has not kept pace with the planning applications: drainage, roads schools and health care. The application requires a bungalow to be knocked down.in order to create an access.This will create a dangerous junction on an already congested road. The obvious entry to any proposed development is from the existing Taylor Wimpey site not from Higher Road. The residents of Higher Road due to its narrowness are forced on occasions to park their cars with wheels on the pavements in order to allow reasonable passage of vehicles down the centre of the road. This impedes the passage of wheel chairs prams and cyclists and has ben the subject of complaint by other road users.”
''The site will have a major impact on Club Cottages which as some of the oldest buildings in Longridge which are both listed buildings and are part of the of a conservation area. The homes will be built around it and all down the hill to Tootle Heights Development by Taylor Wimpey thus impairing the visible amenity of the area, landscape and townscape as well as crucially failing to protect heritage assets.”
''Since the application was refused the Government have announced 2 consultations to which the RVBC have responded. The first was to announce a formula for local authorities to build houses annually and the need for greater cooperation with neighbouring authorities. Both are very important to Longridge . First the government proposed a reduction in annual house building in the Ribble Valley from 260 to 172 a year. The requirements of cooperation in this consultation will be very important to Longridge in dealing with the City of Preston.. Both policies were supported by RVBC .More recently the government have issues a further consultation reforming the national planning rules: The so called NPPF or National Planning Policy Framework which could also bring greater pressures on developers and in my view should require that only planning applications with builders included should be made to avoid land banking.”