Local Plan 2011-2031 Proposed Submission Draft

Paragraph 13.171

The Category A status of Kimpton village is endorsed. It is noted that following Regulation 18 consultation, only one site is now allocated, but that the redefined Green Belt boundary, within which policies will allow general development during the Plan period, affords potential for sustainable growth to keep the community vital and its facilities viable.

Paragraph 13.265 - Pirton has long been designated as a selected village in the rural area (beyond the Green Belt), wherein development has been permitted within the "main area" of the village defined by the "village policy area" on the current Local Plan Proposals Maps. On the current 1996 Plan, the line is drawn fairly tightly and, in order to allow development, two "character Areas" (V3 and V4), have now been developed as residential cul-de-sacs. V1 is undeveloped, being a Scheduled (Ancient) Monument and V2 is landlocked, so other than redevelopment, which is unlikely to yield much, if indeed any, net increase in housing, there is little room left to meet either the needs of the village or the wider needs of the district. Indeed, the most recent development is 11 affordable homes, built adjacent to, but outside the current village limits, in order to cater for existing housing needs in the parish.

Its Category A designation in the new Local Plan recognises the status of the village in the district settlement hierarchy and its defined boundary as shown on the Proposals Map is drawn to extend around the two proposed allocations, which featured in the previous iteration of the Local Plan (Preferred Options - Winter 2014-15). Neither of these feature in the current version, which allocates no sites, but refers to an outline planning approval for 82 homes at Holwell Turn and 12 other dwellings built or approved since 2011.

Paragraph 13.267 - Attached is an extract from the Preferred Options Proposals Map. PT2 is the Holwell Turn site, now approved in outline and contained within the newly defined boundary. As an approval, it is quite correctly excluded as an allocation and forms a part of the district's housing land supply. PT1 is land east of Priors Hill. A site in respect of which our clients have an option and which prior to its proposed allocation in 2014-15, was promoted as being available and deliverable and featured favourably in SHLAAs.

In the Regulation 18 statement of consultation summary there is no NHDC response in respect of either PT1 or PT2. Events surrounding PT2 are set out above. PT1 has simply disappeared as an allocation, albeit shown as within the new village limit. The reason for the removal of the allocation is attributable to the whole site (with the exception of the abovementioned 11 affordable homes, which are not plotted on either of the Proposals Maps) being designated as a Scheduled Monument on 16 May 2016.

This resulted directly from an outline planning application having been submitted on the balance (the entirety minus the 11 affordable units) of PT1 in December 2014 (14/03369/1), in parallel with the Preferred Options consultation. A copy of the illustrative layout which accompanied it is attached. Pre-determination archaeological investigations, including field trials, were undertaken for the applicants in conjunction with the County Council's archaeologists and in parallel, a third party requested that the whole application site be considered for scheduled monument listing, which was successful. The applicants sought a review and pending this, the outline application was withdrawn at the request of NHDC planning officers.

On 16 November 2016 scheduling was reconfirmed by the review, but the boundary was revised and, including a 5m internal buffer, the southern boundary, rather than running around the recently built 11 affordable homes and adjoining the rear of existing housing in Danefield Road, now runs eastwards from the rear of the new housing and parallel with Danefield Road. It can be seen on the attached drawing.

As a consequence of the review of the extent of the scheduled area, a 1.16 hectare parcel of land, formerly a part of PT2 and the parallel outline planning application (3.9 hectares), is now outside the recently scheduled monument. It adjoins existing housing to the south and east and has road frontage in the west.

Mindful of the fact that the larger site was deleted owing to the scheduling and that the boundary was revised very recently, and after the current version of the Plan was prepared for this round of consultations, then there is no reason why the reduced site should not be reinstated prior to submission of the Plan. Indeed failure to do so would logically fail the soundness test.

For the avoidance of doubt, the site remains under option and it is available and deliverable early in the Plan period. Although withdrawn and in outline, access provision was unreserved in the recent application and the County Council was satisfied that the 3.9 hectare site could be accessed satisfactorily. As can be seen, the previous proposal showed 77 dwellings, with 53 served off Priors Hill and 24 from Pollards Way.

In the short time available, a revised preliminary illustrative layout has been prepared as a basis for discussion. It is attached and it shows 29 houses served off the same Priors Hill access as agreed with the County Council as highways authority and a pedestrian access to Pollards Way. As portrayed, the proposal is of a similar overall scale and density to that the subject of the withdrawn scheme and it would have a similar relationship with the monument as the newly built housing at the head of Pollards Way. It is anticipated that this plan will form the basis of a new planning application to be submitted to the local planning authority.

In this latter regard, the Archaeology Collective, which acted on behalf of our clients in liaising with Historic England and the DCMS, has prepared a statement (attached) which amongst other matters examines the relationship between the illustrative layout and the monument. As can be seen, it concludes that: "This SM derives its value from its evidential value; its setting being a modern, ploughs field lined by hedged, some of which have pre-modern origins"; and "The monument derives a small portion of its significance from its setting. The changes that would result from the preliminary illustrative proposals for the 1.16 hectare parcel of land to the south of the SM and north of Danefield Road (figure 4) are negligible (paragraphs 4.9 and 7.2).

To conclude PT1 should be reinstated as suggested, with a format similar to the allocations tables elsewhere in the document (please see attached).

Paragraph 13.265 - Pirton has long been designated as a selected village in the rural area (beyond the Green Belt), wherein development has been permitted within the "main area" of the village defined by the "village policy area" on the current Local Plan Proposals Maps. On the current 1996 Plan, the line is drawn fairly tightly and, in order to allow development, two "character Areas" (V3 and V4), have now been developed as residential cul-de-sacs. V1 is undeveloped, being a Scheduled (Ancient) Monument and V2 is landlocked, so other than redevelopment, which is unlikely to yield much, if indeed any, net increase in housing, there is little room left to meet either the needs of the village or the wider needs of the district. Indeed, the most recent development is 11 affordable homes, built adjacent to, but outside the current village limits, in order to cater for existing housing needs in the parish.

Its Category A designation in the new Local Plan recognises the status of the village in the district settlement hierarchy and its defined boundary as shown on the Proposals Map is drawn to extend around the two proposed allocations, which featured in the previous iteration of the Local Plan (Preferred Options - Winter 2014-15). Neither of these feature in the current version, which allocates no sites, but refers to an outline planning approval for 82 homes at Holwell Turn and 12 other dwellings built or approved since 2011.