COUNCIL planning chiefs have granted outline planning for up to 18 houses on land north of Dean Cottage, Bighton Hill, Ropley despite residents’ objections.
The 3.25 hectares of open agricultural, grazing land sits near, Ropley Dean and north of Ropley village. The Watercress Heritage Railway Line and A31 lies across one boundary and Bighton Hill runs along another.
During the process, applicant Christopher Graham reduced the development from 28 to 18 1-bed, 2-bed and 3-bed houses with seven affordable homes; five affordable rent and two shared ownership houses.
The East Hampshire District Council planning committee, October 24 heard there were 65 letters of objection from single households and 34 letters of objection from single households in the second consultation.
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Ropley ward Councillor Charles Louisson (Con) said despite the significant objections to the application the “long term viability of the village” needs to be considered by having some “limited development.” He said: “It is a low density development with 18 dwellings on 3.25 hectares.”
He said in order for villages to thrive there must be some ”limited development” as villages are full of bigger houses. New families need to have affordable houses to be able to move in and older families living in the village need to be able to downsize and stay in a place that they have lived in for along time.
He said the A31 has growing traffic issues that need to be addressed with the growing housing developments in the area. The members discussed how a new crossing would help assist pedestrians across the A31 safely.
The application was considered under a “tilted balance” in favour of the development as harm could not be shown and because there is only a 3.59 year supply of housing.
The initial planning application generated 87 letters of objection raising concerns from 65 households. These included: brownfield sites should be considered first, not needed by the community, poor vehicular access, lack of amenities in the area and overdevelopment. There were 31 letters of support from 24 single households.
After the reduction in housing to 18 the second consultation had three letters of support, 42 further letters of objection, 34 from a single household, 21 of which had already initially objected. Objections included tree preservation orders being needed, footpath rerouting objections and an unsustainable main route to the village.
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Councillor Roger Mullenger (Lib Dem, Liss) said it was disappointing that there wasn’t a three-dimensional visualisation of the site to show the scale of the proposed homes.
Cllr Louisson said there might be a focus on the houses being one or 1.5 storey, giving the homes less prominence in the landscape.
The site offers a large area of public open parkland with homes built at the lower end of the site where the harm of negative visual impact is lessened, said the officer’s report.
The officer’s report said the proposals include the gifting of two acres of land to Ropley Parish Council, which lies adjacent to the existing Ropley Sports Club for community use, potentially for a football pitch.
The outline planning application reference: 60189 with access from Bighton Hill was approved with 11 votes.
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