AN appeal hearing is due to start in January over plans to build 32 homes on a field on the outskirts of Thornbury.
Newland Homes’ bid for outline permission for housing on the site at Post Farm, north of Butt Lane (pictured above), on farmland currently used for cattle grazing was thrown out by South Gloucestershire Council in January 2024.
The developer’s agents Pegasus Group said the 32 homes “can be sensitively accommodated on-site, limiting the impact of the scheme in the wider landscape setting”.
However the plans were opposed by Thornbury Town Council and 38 residents, and South Gloucestershire Council agreed.
The application was rejected by officers using delegated powers on seven separate grounds, for contradicting the council’s core strategy, policy, sites and places plan and the Thornbury Neighbourhood Plan.
The council said it would have adverse impacts on the hamlet of Lower Morton and the setting of Grade II listed Yew Tree Farmhouse, which were “not outweighed by the public benefits of the scheme”.
The Planning Inspectorate has now informed South Gloucestershire Council that an inspector will hear an appeal into its refusal of planning permission on January 30, with a decision expected by March 13.
Newland Homes has set out the reasons for its appeal in a 38-page document published on the council’s planning website.
It says that it intends to “interrogate the council’s housing land supply” and the implications of its Local Plan consultation on the number and location of new hoes needed in the district.
The developer will also question the “alleged harms” to landscape, heritage and agricultural land cited in the council’s decision.
It is the third attempt to develop the site, with the same developers approaching South Gloucestershire Council in 2021 with proposals for up to 37 homes and an earlier planning application by Linden Homes to build up to 39 homes on the site rejected by the council in 2019.
New homes target rises by 6,000
CAMPAIGNERS say South Gloucestershire Council will need to find space for nearly 6,000 extra homes on top of sites in its latest Local Plan to meet new mandatory government targets.
Sir Keir Starmer announced an updated National Planning Policy Framework in December, which sets compulsory targets for all councils in a bid to build 1.5 million new homes over the next five years.
The Prime Minister said: “Our Plan for Change will put builders not blockers first, overhaul the broken planning system and put roofs over the heads of working families and drive the growth that will put more money in people’s pockets.”
The Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government published new “immediate mandatory housing targets” for all councils in the country.
It says councils should seek out ‘Brownfield’ sites, which have previously been built on, first, but should then target ‘Grey belt’ – a new designation for sites that are in Green Belt areas but have either been built on before or have limited environmental importance.
Target up 29%
In South Gloucestershire the number of new homes the government says are needed has risen from 1,317 a year to 1,702 – up 29.2%.
The council, which launched consultations into its Local Plan for development between 2025 and 2040 a year ago, told the Voice it would “respond in due course” to the announcement.
The authority added 17 extra potential housing sites to the plan over the summer, raising the total number of new homes it could accommodate from 19,755 to 22,241.
But campaigners from TRAPP’D – Thornbury Residents Against Poorly Planned Development – say the new total the council must reach is 25,528 – 5,773 higher than the original target when the Local Plan Phase 3 consultation was launched in February 2024.
Target ‘doomed to fail’
A TRAPP’D spokesperson said: “In our view the Government’s target is doomed to fail because it relies on the private sector to deliver the housing plans, when it is not in their interest to do so – housebuilders will always hold back supply as soon as they start to detect downward price pressure.
“The final version of the new planning rules contained at least one nasty surprise, in the form of a new clause which states that from 2025 the so-called Housing Delivery Test is increased from five to six years.
“This shift in the goalposts means that in order to avoid a loophole that would allow speculative developers to build pretty much wherever they want, councils must demonstrate six years’-worth of development approved or underway.
“The irony is that the test is in part a measure of a housebuilder’s performance on how well they build out sites compared to the planning permission given, and yet they are the beneficiaries if the test fails – it’s rather like being caught for speeding and given a reward instead of a fine!”
TRAPP’D says the council will have the chance to put forward a plan containing sites to meet 80% of the new target by March 12 under “transitional arrangements” but will have to find the balance within two years.
The spokesperson added: “We do not know where these additional proposed houses will be built, but we know from past statements that the council considers further large-scale development in the north of the district around Thornbury to be unsustainable.”
New Metro Mayor powers
The government has also announced plans to draw up legislation giving Metro Mayors the power to bypass council planning committees.
TRAPP’D added: “We have participated in many Planning Committees and, whilst we don’t always agree with the conclusions, we believe that missing the local knowledge of Councillors will seriously diminish the quality of the review.”