‘Depressed’ and ‘disgusted’ councillors have given the green light to a plan cutting public funding contributions from a new development by over 75 per cent.
Members of South Holland District Council’s Planning Committee last week opted to pass the latest plan by Seagate Homes for 70 homes on the site of the former Ivanda Nursery, off Monks House Lane in Spalding.
Earlier this year they approved the same application with an agreement the developer would pay £561,960 towards the Spalding Western Relief Road, £420,333 for education, £36,200 for the NHS and £4,200.
But using national planning laws the developer submitted a new application and an independent viability study claiming it can now only meet a quarter of those costs.
South Holland District Council’s own independent viability study agreed and its officers told its Planning Committee it recommended Seagate pay the £225,000 it could afford to the relief road as it was a priority.
The meeting was told it was for the county council to recoup money spent on the nearly completed first section and not the as yet unfunded other four parts.
Councillors were told they could otherwise have ‘two to three’ affordable homes on site instead of the money. Normal planning guidance would mean the development should have had 18.
If it refused the application, officers said the council may have to pay costs if a subsequent appeal was successful.
Coun Chris Brewis said all the councillors were ‘depressed’ by the situation.
“I remain disgusted by the system we work under,” he said. “It’s £806,000 less than we originally agreed.
“We’re probably stuck with it and it means the cost will have to be met, at difficult times, by the public purse.
“I’d love to say tough.”
Coun Andrew Woolf argued that defending a refusal legally was ‘a risk worth taking’.
“I’m unhappy and annoyed, it’s almost a pointless application. If this gets approved then so many houses get built, but it doesn’t help the road, doesn’t help infrastructure, doesn’t help the NHS or education.
“We end up with 70 houses going to overfill the town even more.
“How many of these applications are we going to have coming?
“This viability is going to come back and back. We’re the one having to make these decisions even though, to a certain extent its out of our control.”
But councillors voted eight to four in favour of passing it.
Coun Henry Bingham said: “We’ve listened to the debates and seen the applications and I can’t say any councillor in here will be surprised that a viability study would arrive once we saw that relief road contribution on top of the others.
“This isn’t a green site. It’s covered in concrete and already been developed in the middle of a new housing estate.
“It’s disappointing we can’t get the contributions from it and compared to what it was, they are measly.
“I can see why councillors are irritated and why the general public will be furious by it.
“But, if we refuse this because we’re getting less money from the developer towards infrastructure, and it went to an appeal, if we lost, we’d be losing lots of tax payers’ money.”
Speaking on behalf of Seagate Homes, Lee Russell told the committee the request for the relief road money came after contributions had been agreed and that the company was also going to offer ‘play equipment to a local park’.
“Unfortunately Seagate had no choice other than to ask South Holland District Council if they could consider waiving these last minute requests,” he said. “It’s unquestionably a prime development location and we hope to see housing developed in a timely fashion as Seagate had ideally wanted to begin construction in January.”
Head of planning Phil Norman said there had been a ‘mis-communication’ with the county council and that he would be ‘picking it up at a higher level’.
