A field off the Drayton Road where contested plans for houses are still under consideration is currently full of buttercups. Here is the Timeline so far
Aug 2012: Hallam Land Management consult on proposed plans for 170 houses in field off Drayton Road
Nov 2012: Plans are Submitted by Hallam Land Management for 159 houses in field off Drayton Road
Nov 2012: Large Public Meeting against the plans at Guildhall
Jan 2012: VWHDC turns down planning application
Feb 2013: Hallam Land Management launch appeal
Feb 2013: Second Public Meeting against the plans at Guildhall
May 2013: Planning appeal held at Guildhall
Jul 2013: Appeal Decision allows plans so long as the traffic mitigation measures (pedestrian lights to hold up traffic) are put in place
??? ????: Hallam Sells land to Taylor Wimpey
Mar 2014: Taylor Wimpey sign erected outside field
Mar 2014: Hallam’s Traffic mitigation measures are rejected by Oxfordshire County Council
Apr 2014: Taylor Wimpey put in retrospective planning application for sign ‘Land Acquired’
Hallam Land Management Website says “Our application for 159 units was granted in the Spring of 2013. The land was sold to a national developer in Spring of 2014”.
Taylor Wimpey website says “The site at Drayton Road, Abingdon already has detailed consent, however Taylor Wimpey will be replanning and lodging a new application in Spring 2014.”
Correct me (I am bound to have got it wrong)…
Hallam has given up because it cannot meet the County Council’s traffic requirements. It has therefore sold on to Wimpey.
Wimpey intends to start a new application.
Does this mean that the permissions (with qualifications) originally given to Hallam will become irrelevant and that a new process must be begun. If so, are we able to lodge objections to the new application?
The traffic issue is vital. It looks as though the CC is taking this very seriously (thank goodness). Can Neil bring us up to speed?
Oh – and question two…
If we are starting from square one, has the County Council now got a strategic housing planning which will close the loophole Wimpey exploited? What are the rules here?
Excuse my ignorance – doubtless someone will point me to a very detailed and lengthy regulation in the depths of an obscure website!
Logic would suggest new applicant, new application would render any conditions set under previous applications invalid, but I suspect a lot would depend on what exactly was in the application. If there are sufficient differences between the two i.e. number of dwellings. access points etc then I think the conditions would be irrelevant. Not wanting to be negative here but they are determined to build, the new applicant will have all the info they need to put mitigations in place or have answers for the objections that were raised last time and I doubt the council would have been able to pull a strategic housing plan together in that timescale.
The implications for extra traffic would be horrendous. We have already had one death, one person seriously injured and numerous accidents because of volume of traffic in South Abingdon. We would see extra traffic along the Drayton Road and surrounding roads. I intend to submit my objection to the building of these houses. Taylor Wimpey seem pretty confident. I wonder have they been unofficially been given the go ahead to build? So much for taking the wishes of local residents into consideration.
Can we object to the sign on the grounds it does not fit with the local area? Awfully nice of Wimpey to fit a public convenience along the site entrance though
Hi – the change of ownership of the site will not affect the planning permission that has already been granted. That means that the planning permission is still there, but a developer can’t proceed unless or until the pedestrian crossing changes take place, which the County Council has decided not to do.
So basically no change from the existing permission.
My best guess is that the new owners will try and come up with a scheme that produces less traffic so that they can apply for a new planning permission with more chance of then winning an appeal.
Hi Neil. How can having 150 odd more houses all with one or two cars wanting to go down the Drayton Road produce less traffic? The crossing was a nonsense. Traffic would have still been held up turning right to go into town.
what’s needed is a round-about there from which you could travel along a new road along the back of Masefield Rd and come out at tesco round-about?
If I read Neil’s response correctly, the County Council seems to be retrieving the position by not putting the proposed pedestrian crossing changes into effect. This seems to be rather a clever way of stopping the developers from rushing into building.
I am watching that space… 😉
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I am, as is everyone else, concerned about the effect on traffic on our already congested and potholed roads. However, what also concerns me greatly is the potential risk of flooding of the houses that lie down hill of this proposed development, where I live! There is already a risk of flooding and putting houses, however many, at the top of a hill which runs into an already flood hit stream seems madness.
How about a new doctors surgery on the site with some houses?
I have just made an appointment Friday 6th June. The earliest available.
diggers have now moved in and site is being marked out