Developer defends green belt homes with forecast of £2m economic boost

BUILDING at least 100 homes on land in Lymington will help inject up to £2m into the local area and provide badly-needed affordable properties, the company behind it has claimed.

Defending the intention to develop a green belt site next to Oakhaven Hospice, between Ridgeway Lane and Lower Pennington Lane, Cicero Estates director Jason Lewis said the benefits the project will bring should be highlighted.

“On a scheme like this you are going to see between £1.5m to £2m of contribution into the local economy to improve schools, healthcare facilities, road infrastructure, footpath links and so on and so forth,” he said. “And then, most critically, things like affordable housing.

“There are some shocking statistics such as that in this particular part of the world there is a 15-year wait for an affordable housing unit.

“With 40% of people who work in the New Forest unable to live in it, that cannot be a good recipe for vibrant, local communities. You need vibrancy and that has to represent all sectors of society. It’s the way it is.”

His comments come after criticism of the scheme by two campaign groups – the Lymington Society and Pennington and Lymington Lanes Society (PALLS).

As reported in the A&T, the site is listed in New Forest District Council’s draft Local Plan – which sets out development policy for more than 10,000 new homes until 2036.

It is earmarked to be developed with at least 100 homes, and building on it is promoted by Cicero Estates.

When the site was discussed last week during the public examination of the Local Plan, members from both the Lymington Society and PALLS argued the surrounding roads are too narrow to cope with the extra cars the development will generate.

They contend it could upset the tranquillity of the hospice, which cares for terminally ill people, and fear the number of homes there could ultimately increase to 200.

But Mr Lewis rejected that claim, stating: “You just can’t put hundreds of houses there. The natural development constraints which exist along with protected trees and ecological constraints mean that our development is fairly well controlled.

He claimed the site had a “ceiling” of around 115 homes, adding: “I’ve seen comments that there’s going to 200 houses; that simply cannot happen.

“That’s a physical impossibility because of the constraints.”

Addressing highway concerns, Mr Lewis said Cicero Estates took advice from planning and highway consultants who determined the routes are “distributor roads” and not rural lanes.

On the issue of development, Mr Lewis said in the past NFDC favoured “piecemeal” development of 15 units or less – which historically did not make meaningful financial contributions to the local infrastructure or affordable housing despite creating developments that added extra pressure on local services.

He guaranteed the development would feature affordable housing, saying: “It has been suggested this site should not be taking any affordable housing. That’s incredibly disappointing for us.

“We will be going down the pathway of being policy complaint – which requires there to be up to 50% of affordable housing.

“Not everything has to be focused on a four-bedroom family house costing £1m. That’s not available for most people, they can’t do it – so you do need entry level housing, it’s as simple as that.

“On any volume development it’s an important ingredient to cater for all housing ownership capabilities, otherwise the system is not complete.”

Of the affordable housing element 70% of it would be for general needs and rented, with the balance between market discount or shared ownership properties.

Mr Lewis added that would be a matter determined by the housing association involved with the site and it was “too soon” in the process to say who that might be.

One controversial aspect of the site is that when NFDC first proposed which land would put forward for development in the draft Local Plan, it did not feature.

It was only after a subsequent public consultation period that the site was added – alongside other significant changes.

Asked about that Mr Lewis said: “What I can say is NFDC put out a call for sites – quite typical for most local authorities looking to identify land for future housing provision. We simply responded to that and they came back sand said they felt it was appropriate for development needs.

“We are simply responding to local government’s needs for new housing and following due process.”

He stressed that he respected the planning process and opponents’ right to comment on the plan. Mr Lewis continued: “Sometimes, not just in this example but in others too, people do have genuine points of concern we will try to address.”

Engaging with the process had made the developer aware of “complexities” Oakhaven faced, he said, and resulted in a compromise solution to include some buffer land between the proposed development and the hospice, and build it a new car park.