Housing estate would harm village beauty - council

A developer wanted to build 115 new homes in the Cambridgeshire village of Yaxley

Plans for a development of more than 100 new homes on the edge of a village have been rejected because of claims of harm to its "intrinsic character and beauty".

Abbey Properties Cambridgeshire Ltd wanted to build 115 homes at Livery Stable Folly Farm, off London Road, in Yaxley, Cambridgeshire.

Residents raised concerns about the impact the homes would have on the village and traffic.

Rejecting the application, planning officers at Huntingdonshire District Council said not enough information had been provided to ease those concerns.

Planning documents submitted to the district council say the development should be considered "an excellent opportunity" to help meet the council’s housing need, "in particular its undersupply of affordable housing".

The documents add that Yaxley "has seen the delivery of no such dwellings since the adoption of the current local plan in 2019, and this should carry significant positive weight in the planning balance".

Objections to the plans included concerns about additional traffic in the area

Abbey Properties had proposed to make 40% of the homes available as affordable housing, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

'Rural character'

More than 30 formal objections were lodged against the development, and at a parish council meeting earlier in the year people in the village expressed concerns about the proposed access road to the 115 homes off London Road.

Those living nearby said the road was already very busy and questioned how it would cope with all the new households travelling along it.

One parent said they already had concerns about letting their children walk or ride their bikes due to how busy London Road was, and shared fears the proposed homes would make the road more unsafe.

Planning officers at the district council who assessed the application said "insufficient information" had been provided by the developer to show the proposed homes would not negatively impact the highway.

They added: "It is considered that the proposed development would lead to demonstrable harm to the character of the existing settlement of Yaxley by virtue of extending beyond the clear development boundary .. and the introduction of a domestic form of development would have a notable urbanising effect resulting in the erosion of the rural character.

"Through the loss of the demarcation between built form and countryside, the proposal would result in harm to the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside."

The developer has the right to lodge an appeal to try and overturn the district council’s decision to refuse the application.