Home Page Haverhill News

Haverhill Poll
Haverhill Poll

General

Mailing List


Matthew Hancock
Your Local MP
 


Three town centre sites for new homes up for planning approval

Monday, 2nd December 2013.

Three sites in Haverhill town centre could be given permission for development for a total of 44 new homes at a planning meeting this week.

They are made up of 14 flats and seven houses at the former Haverhill Snooker and Bowl in Chalkstone Way, ten houses and five flats on the former coach depot at the top of Duddery Hill, and eight flats in Lower Downs Slade behind The Gallery.

The snooker club site has had numerous planning applications for housing in the past decade which have come to nothing.

Most recently an application, similar to the current one, which was refused by St Edmundsbury Borough Council because of the insistence of Anglian Water that it was close enough to the sewage treatment works to result in an odour problem for residents, went to appeal.

The planning inspector threw out the Anglian Water argument, but refused the plan all the same on the grounds that it did not include a contribution to funding of local services, called a Section 106 Agreement, which is commonly required from developers nowadays.

A report to St Edmundsbury's development control committee on Thursday, says the agreement is still not secured, so the current plan might still fall, but it is hoped agreement can be reached before the meeting.

The former bus and coach depot site plan has drawn objections from five neighbours on various grounds including overdelopment, flooding and loss of amenity.

It envisages improving the access from Duddery Hill and building ten houses and five flats. One house would be detached, six semi-detached and three terraced.

Four of the 15 homes would be for affordable housing.

The site also includes the bungalows either side of the petrol station, which are owned by the applicants, the Richardson family who formerly owned Burton Coaches before selling to Stephensons, who currently operate the depot.

The development would include a double garage for the right-hand bungalow, No 76, and access to the new homes would be from the joint access road between the depot and No 72.

A car servicing business using some buildings on the site would be retained, but the main depot workshop and maintenance building would be demolished.

The development envisaged in Lower Downs Slade is another one for Havebury Housing Partnership, supplying eight new flats.

It fills in behind The Gallery and a few Queen Street shops as far as the public footpath from the car park.

An objection had been received from a resident who claimed they had not been informed of the proposal despite the fact that they owned the site.

A report to committee members explains they have now been notified and that land ownership is not a relevant matter in determining planning application.

Haverhill Online News

Comment on this story

[board listing] [login] [register]

No comments have been posted for this news entry.

 

You must be logged in to post messages. (login now)

© Haverhill-UK | Accessibility | Disclaimer