Plans for village at committee

Plans for 40 homes In Crowland were passed on a deciding vote and 52 others deferred last week.

Four different applications for the town came before South Holland District Council’s Planning Committee.

The 40-home application for a development off Barbers Drove North was passed after the panel was split with six of the committee voting for and six against.

That left chairman Coun James Avery with the deciding vote and he stuck with his original vote of passing the application.

The site already has planning permission for 41 homes, with the latest application by Lion Investment Group, which the meeting heard was a division of Seagate Homes, changing the layout and incorporating an existing house which was originally to be bulldozed.

Concerns were raised that Section 106 money would go out of the area to the Deepings School, where Crowland pupils tend to go for secondary education.

Coun Jim Astill also argued that Barbers Drove was too narrow for construction traffic, though planning officer Phil Norman pointed out Highways had not raised any objections.

Coun Rodney Grocock said: “I think the design is extremely poor and not in keeping with the surroundings.”

But Coun Avery said: “I’m not hearing anything robust enough for refusal before the deciding vote was cast.”

An agreed Section 106 package includes 11 of the homes being affordable, a £26,400 NHS contribution and £41,200 towards Crowland Parish Council’s application to build new facilities at the town’s Snowden Playing Field.

The offering of £8,800 for the same project was part of the reason why three applications for a total of 52 homes off Harrington Drive by Ashwood Homes were deferred.

Several councillors described it as a ‘paltry’ offering after the council asked for £800,000.

“I think that might have been unrealistic,” Coun Avery said. “But I do agree that the sum is paltry and wouldn’t build anything suitable for poultry.”

The application would have 25 per cent affordable homes and a £34,320 NHS contribution. But councillors asked officers to look at it again and into concerns over the site having a 1.3m high deviation in floor levels.

“We need to see a developer that thinks it through and does the alteration of levels on their own land so the properties are on the same levels that already exist”, Coun Bryan Alcock said.