South Holland District Councillors agreed to defer plans for 81 homes in Donington after it failed to satisfy their concerns over a number of issues.
Going into the meeting, the recommendation was to approve the plan but at the October planning committee meeting of South Holland District Council, councillors raised concerns about the reduced numbers of affordable housing, the density of the development, remote parking and refuse collection points away from dwellings.
Coun Andrew Woolf said the decision to defer is “a way of negotiation” with the applicant, Ashwood Homes.
Coun Rodney Grocock said that negotiation needed to happen on both sides: “We have to give and take in this game and there’s no take on their behalf. All they’ve done so far is put in a very poor application.”
The number of affordable housing units – reduced to 19 in this application – is something the council won’t expect to see rise when the application is resubmitted, said Coun Bryan Alcock. “We will probably live with a reduction in the affordable housing percentage if the rest of it worked first. I don’t want to infer that we necessarily expect it to come back with the correct number of affordable housing because it probably from a viability point of view patently can’t.”
Coun Harry Drury said that the council will still be open to the application, once the points have been addressed.
“The applicant could address many of our concerns and get back to us. Most seem happy with the development on this site, as am I, but there are problems that need developing,” he said.
But Coun Christopher Brewis said the plan needs a complete overhaul to satisfy.
“If it was amended as much as we are hoping it would need a totally new consultation and would be a new application. I don’t see how on earth this could be amended so fundamentally to still be the same application.”
The proposed site is land off Town Dam Lane.
