Homes plan for Netley Marsh farm thrown out amid nearly 100 objections

BUILDING 10 homes on a farm in Netley Marsh has been blocked after nearly 90 people objected to the scheme.

National park authority planning officers refused the proposals for Broadbridge Farm in Rossiters Lane, Woodlands, in the face of community opposition, criticism of a “suburban” design, and uncertainty over affordable housing.

The application by Darrell Cresswell, of SMB Holdings Ltd, for the 0.6-hectare site would have involved demolishing some of the existing structures and setting up an office or café.

The farm was no longer functioning as a going concern, the application argued, and transforming the partly dilapidated site would put it to “good use that offers benefit to the community.”

But 89 people wrote to the NPA against the idea, alongside the parish council which attacked the designs as “too urban” and likely to harm the surrounding conservation area.

Among the structures earmarked for demolition were six Nissen hut houses, built during the Second World War to accommodate bombed-out families.

Parish councillors raised fears of flooding, traffic on the narrow access lane, and whether permission would “open the flood gates” to more development on surrounding land, potentially losing important back-up grazing for commoners.

The proposals included seven “affordable” homes, as well as extending the existing farmhouse, building a new open market house, and converting the stables converted into a three-bedroom holiday let.

There would have been parking for 31 cars and a central green area for the homes to look on to.

The barn would become an office or cafe. But there was concern that the café would not have been “viable long-term” and offices “not appropriate”.

An NPA planning report also highlighted a “lack of clarity” from the developer over how the affordable housing would be delivered to meet the tests for permission as a rural exceptions site.

It added: “There is self-evidently a lack of community support for this proposal.

“The design and layout is considered to be too suburban whilst the number of units proposed are out of scale and at odds with the pattern of development in the immediate locality, which would not be appropriate to the conservation area and the wider landscape setting.”

In 1979 the site was the target of plans for an 18-hole golf course, but that was ultimately abandoned after being refused by New Forest District Council.