What is proposed?
Pillar Land Securities and Coln Signature Homes have submitted a Full Planning Application for the ‘Construction of 125 dwellings (to include 46% affordable), commercial business units, landscaped parkland, community boat storage/parking, allotments, improvements to existing permissive pathway and public footway, enhancement of vehicular access and associated infrastructure and landscaping’.
The planning application has been carefully considered after much consultation and engagement with the local community, and key stakeholders within South Hams District and Devon County Councils. Thank you to everyone that has attended our community engagement events, written to us, emailed us, and completed the feedback questionnaires. All of the information provided has been used in the making of this planning application.
The planning application has been made using the ‘A Different Approach’ model, which looks at what could be done differently to achieve a more attractive and welcoming, balanced housing development, and enable rural Communities opportunities to grow and thrive. We believe that opportunities for community-led housing, with local people playing a leading and lasting role in solving local housing problems, is key to thriving rural communities.
Using the ‘Newton Ferrers and Noss Neighbourhood Plan’, and through engagement with the local communities and Parish Council, we have made our planning application to try and help overcome the imbalance in the housing stock and problems around ‘appropriate’ affordable housing for local people, to provide opportunities for ‘downsizing homes’ for older generations, and provide ‘affordable business units’ for people. We feel our plans will help the Parish avoid the problems faced by so many of our coastal communities where larger, less affordable properties often predominate; to help bring balance and ensure a sustainable community for the future.
Our submitted planning layout can be seen further down this web page.
What is on the site at the moment?
The site is a former RAF base, comprising brownfield and greenfield land. Parts of the site are noted to be heavily contaminated.
Click here to view a slideshow of site photos
What stage are the plans at?
The application has now been submitted to South Hams District Council. We have been allocated a planning officer and we are awaiting feedback on our application.
What kind of new homes are proposed?
In stark contrast to what is often seen as a ‘volume house builder’ approach, this development proposal focuses on a landscape-led, placemaking approach, designed to create an attractive, welcoming, residential environment. The applicant has no desire to build standardised ‘boring boxes’ for houses, nor to simply develop the housing and walk-away – the application is looking to deliver a high quality, sustainable, residential development for the local community, which is in-keeping with the local area, suited to the environment, catering for a range of purposes and people.
The development also includes commercial units to cater for business use, which could include a bike shop / café offering, linked to a new community hub space, offering opportunities for local home-workers, to have bookable meeting spaces with free wi-fi, a community shop, workspace for smaller/medium sized business, and space for other business uses.
The previous planning consent for 70 homes has not yet been constructed, and as such, the land is still vacant and partially brownfield. The site is acknowledged within the Neighbourhood Plan as providing 70 homes.
54% of the homes in this new application are proposed to be private sale, and 46% homes are proposed to be affordable, in a wider mix of types and tenures than the original planning consent.
The private homes are proposed to be in a mix of two, three and four bedroom homes, in a variety of shapes and styles to reflect the local character of the area, benefiting from gardens, parking, garaging to specific plots, with good access to the proposed new facilities and the extensively landscaped parkland area.
The affordable homes are proposed to be one, two and three bedroom homes, in a variety of shapes, styles and tenures – the explanations of the tenures are explained in the tab ‘Our Housing Models’.
What issues have we considered?
As part of the planning application, a number of disciplines are working hard on the application. Please see below a brief resume from each discipline.
Contamination, remediation and historic land-use
The site was previously an RAF base, and as such, the land is partially brownfield, with a large amount of hard ground covered in concrete, extensive building foundations remaining below ground and existing structures on the site, there is extensive contamination and remediation required on the site, and this will be dealt with and paid for by the development of the site, subject to planning permission. The remediation of the land is subject to regulatory control, screening and testing such that all garden areas will be clean.
Landscape
The site lies within the ‘South Devon Area of Outstanding Beauty’ (AONB). The proposed application will conserve and enhance the landscape, scenic beauty and other natural beauty criteria, including the conservation of wildlife and cultural heritage. The landscape strategy proposes a strong green infrastructure framework, to ensure that the proposed development complements and enhances the local character and scenic beauty of the area, provides compensatory landscape features, delivers long term recreational benefits, ecological enhancement and integrates the development in to its surroundings, creating an attractive environment for both the existing and new residents. The proposed scheme has been guided by and will enhance the natural assets within the site, such as existing hedgerows, existing trees, the natural valley to the west and public footpath. The components of the green infrastructure framework at this stage includes the following:
- A large area of parkland which will be open to the public, incorporating new woodland, water bodies, play area and footpaths;
- Walking and cycling routes connecting the parkland to different areas of the development and the wider local area providing easy access for local residents and visitors;
- New public open spaces incorporating tree planting, habitat creation, play areas and informal seating areas;
- New green corridors with new tree and shrub groups along the boundaries of the site; and
- New planting to reinstate and reinforce locally distinct landscape features such as Devon hedgebanks and woodland belts.
The proposed scheme will follow a robust ‘placemaking’ approach of legible streets and spaces that are defined and overlooked by buildings. It is anticipated that buildings will be predominantly two storey, with the exception of the commercial and care units. The uses of materials, colours and finishes will respond and relate to the local context and surrounding villages to ensure the development relates well to its setting.
Ecology and arboriculture
The site had a full suite of ecology surveys carried out during most of 2020 to cover a range of ecological species and habitats. The surveys did not uncover much of ecological merit, with the exception of a barn owl that roosts in the current barn – as part of our proposals, we will be delivering a new wildlife tower, which will feature a new barn owl house, bat boxes, bird nesting boxes and bee boxes. As part of the Biodiversity Net Gain requirement, we will be proposing a variety of new habitats, to include new reptile habitats, grassland and wetlands. We are pleased to say that we have reached a 13.37% improvement in habitat units and a 20.21% improvement in hedgerow units as part of our proposed scheme.
In terms of arboriculture, we are proposing to remove as few trees as possible – and where we do have to, these are of poorer quality, or are growing in an unsafe way. We are not proposing to remove any category A trees, but remove fourteen category B, C and U trees. In terms of tree retention, we are proposing to retain twenty-nine trees, and strengthen the tree population on-site with the planting of several ranges and varieties of trees with the planting of over 1000 new native trees. Our enhancement planting will strengthen the sites green credentials and ensure that habitat is sustained for ecology purposes.
The design has responded to the ecological opportunities by;
- Providing a bespoke barn owl tower, providing a safe new home for barn owls, along with roosting opportunities for other birds, bats and invertebrates.
- Retaining hedgerows, with buffers to ensure they can be managed sensitively for wildlife in future;
- The planting of over 1000 new native trees across the site;
- Enhancing existing grassland within a large new area of public open space, by creating swathes of tussocky grassland to support more food for barn owls and tall herb communities along ditches.
- Providing dark, semi-natural habitat areas to support commuting and foraging bats.
- Providing enhanced habitats for reptiles and invertebrates, through sensitive management of scrub habitats;
- Incorporating basins and wetlands to ensure that run-off isn’t increased and that more opportunities are provided for wildlife;
- Ensuring that biodiversity is including within the built areas, including native and pollinator-friendly planting schemes which form ‘stepping stones’ through the development.
- Providing bat, bird and bee boxes within new dwellings.
- Delivering a net gain for biodiversity - 13.37% improvement in habitat units and a 20.21% improvement in hedgerow units.
Flood risk and drainage
As part of our proposals, we propose to construct a new storm and foul drainage strategy to allow for drainage connections for the development proposed at the site. There are existing drains on-site, and as part of the application, we will connect these existing drains into the new drainage, and significantly upgrade the system. There is a redundant sewage treatment plant on-site, and a pumping station which needs to be retained, and our proposals will work with these features and connect them into our system.
As part of the application, a variety of drainage types will be implemented, including infiltration ponds, storm water crates, permeable paving and hydro-brakes to slow down the movement of storm water. The application will look to create SuDS (Sustainable Urban Drainage Systems) on-site, to ensure that water is infiltrated back into the ground. We will also propose additional measures, such as water butts to homes to decrease the amount of water that is wasted.
Highways, access and sustainable travel
Our Highway consultants have carried out a lot of technical work, to include traffic speed surveys for the site, visibility checks, surrounding road junction surveys, and road capacity checks, and all of this information will be used to help design access arrangements for vehicles to the proposed development. Devon Highways have been consulted on throughout these technical investigations and are supportive of our application from a Highways perspective. There is an existing access to the site, which we will look to improve with our proposals, as well as existing on-site roads connecting surrounding homes. We will look to upgrade these and integrate the access as part of our planning application.
A variety of access methods and sustainable travel will be a key part of our planning application. The site will benefit from a range of pathways and pavements across the site, connecting to the village of Newton Ferrers via a new highway pavement running along the B3186. The previous planning application proposed the same highway pavement, and as such, we will deliver this enhanced access in our application. The distance from the end of the village boundary to the access into the site for pedestrians is 400m, and the off-road pavement will allow upgraded pedestrian access. This will also link existing Rights of Ways to the village, which were previously only able to be navigated by off-road access.
Sustainability and the environment
As part of our sustainability credentials, we will deliver a 20% CO2 reduction in site wide emissions through renewables or low carbon technology. This will be achieved through a range of methods, which may include the use of air source heat pumps, solar panels, wind energy and brown water usage. As standard, insulation methods and thicknesses will be higher when compared to older homes, and these will make the proposed new homes energy efficient, warm and cheaper to run. As many people have seen during the Covid-19 pandemic, the idea of ‘working from home’ has really taken off, and as such, our proposals will feature space to do just that – but not just from the kitchen table. Our application will feature office space within homes, but also the opportunity to have a home working pod, which would act as an office in the garden – to keep the workspace away from the home.
As part of our application, a number of community uses have been identified by our engagement with the Parish, and these are listed out below;
- Boat store – as part of our proposals, we are committed to creating additional boat storage, which can be turned into community car parking during the peak season.
- Community parking – our consultation has shown that there is a proven requirement for additional parking spaces within the village, to assist with the volume of vehicles parking in the village.
- Parklands and wetlands – through the development of the site, we have an opportunity to develop a vast parkland setting through the planting of over 1,000 trees and with the creation of a new wetland habitat to encourage a new range of species to the site.
- Business uses – the proposed construction of the business units will allow a range of office based businesses to work from the site at Collaton, with parking and facilities on-site.
- Community business hub space providing bookable indoor office meeting space with free wi-fi.
Neighbourhood Plan
Our purpose is to deliver more than just housing - it is to create a sense of place and community where people can live, work and socialise. Our starting point in terms of place making on this site has been the Newton Ferrers & Noss Mayo adopted Neighbourhood Plan. In order to consider what we should build we have looked at what the community has said that it needs and would like both now and into the future.
We have incorporated many of the things identified by the parish through the Neighbourhood Plan process and now we would like some feedback on the proposed scheme and any other comments you may want to make.
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What is the proposed layout?
Click on the map below to open up the interactive map showing the proposed site layout.