Councillors defer decision on 420 homes north of Stafford

Stafford Borough Council’s planning committee had been recommended to delegate authority to approve the application for land off Sandon Road, which includes the former MOD 4 Site, on Tuesday (March 18).

But Councillor Marnie Phillips raised concerns that a representative of the highways authority – Staffordshire County Council – was not present to answer the committee’s questions. 

And Councillor Scott Spencer called for biodiversity net gain to be reassessed for the site to take into account loss of land earmarked for a proposed new roundabout at Beaconside.

A new four-arm roundabout is planned to serve the Tollgate Industrial Estate as well as the proposed new housing development if it is given the green light, committee members heard on Tuesday. The work would be carried out by the highway authority, but the applicant would be required to pay a contribution towards the construction and the area of land required is to be confirmed.

The application has been put forward by Homes England, a non departmental public body supported by the Government’s Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government. Homes England acquired the site in 2019 after it was identified to be surplus to requirements.

Laura Tilston, who spoke in support of the application at Tuesday’s meeting, said: “We are tasked with accelerating the pace of housebuilding across the country and seeking to deliver high-quality homes. We are confident the scheme meets with policy requirements of the council and this application deals with the general principle of how this site would be developed.”

Mike Sidebottom, who also spoke in support of the application, said: “The site is surrounded on three sides by the Stafford Strategic Development Location and is now surplus to MOD requirements. Homes England fully recognises the importance of retaining key environmental features on the site, including trees and hedgerows.

“The council does not currently have a five-year housing land supply as required by the National Planning Policy Framework. This site is considered to be in a sustainable location and will make a contribution to the housing land supply.”

Stafford Borough Council received nine objections to the application prior to the publication of the report. Objectors have raised concerns about loss of green space, insufficient local facilities, increased highway danger due to an increase in traffic and safety of the proposed access off Sandon Road.

Resident Ian Roscoe, who spoke against the application at Tuesday’s meeting, said: “The proposed development is reliant on facilities being provided by neighbouring development as part of the wider SDL, including connectivity to adjoining sites’ facilities. At this stage there is no detailed proposal to develop the neighbouring site and there are reservations over delivery coming forward in a timescale suitable to provide the much-needed facilities, including shops, schools and employment.

“There would be no local facilities or services within a 10-minute walk for an unknown period of time.The facilities which are five minutes by bicycle are not yet built.

“Highways in their reports say there have been four hospital emergencies due to vehicle accidents in the last few years. I have lived at my home since 1987 – since then there have been 247 vehicle accidents within 50 metres of the access to the proposed access to the site on the B5066.

“This road is gridlocked from 8am with traffic including artics – there would not be enough room for traffic from this site to exit if two artics passed each other. Would there be suffcient room on a 41 metre rounabout on the A513 for an artic to turn left as they have enough problems now – do you really think that the access on B5066 is safe?”