135 homes could be built near King's rural retreat in Gloucestershire
Miller Homes is planning development close to Highgrove
The tranquility of King Charles’ family residence at Highgrove House could be at risk as plans are afoot to potentially build 135 homes on fields within yards of the rural Cotswold retreat.
Corporate development giant Miller Homes is planning to build the new housing estate on fields between Bath Road and Longfurlong Lane on the outskirts of Tetbury.
But residents fear the proposals will threaten the wildflower meadows which lie within yards of the country residence of King Charles III and Queen Camilla..
The privately-owned fields are a priority conservation habitat within the Cotswold National Landscape and an important heritage setting on the southern approach to the historic town of Tetbury, residents say.
"This is an entirely cynical move by Miller Homes," says Peter Martin, a former district councillor and chairman of residents’ group the Longfurlong Greenfields Association (LGA).
"This land has always been excluded from development in the Local Plan and is not part of any future plan for housing in Tetbury"
"Miller Homes knows full well that this site is outside the development boundary, too far away from all the town’s amenities and contravenes dozens of legitimate planning policies designed to protect us against inappropriate development.
"Yet they have been sending in teams of surveyors for months to assess traffic, wildlife, trees, landscape and even archaeology, and have been meeting with local councillors.”
Laura Hall-Wilson, who represents Tetbury with Upton as a Conservative councillor at Cotswold District Council, said the plans would “concrete over” an important part of the countryside.
"The proposed development between Bath Road and Longfurlong Lane is merely taking advantage of arbitrary increases in Government housing targets, yet another show of complete disregard for rural areas," she said.
"This ‘bolt on’ style development is not well positioned in the town where other areas have been identified through the local plan. It would concrete over an important piece of countryside with good footpaths, well loved by walkers.
"Additionally, Miller Homes need to finish what they started with the Highfields development before even considering building elsewhere."
She said she is looking forward to working with the Longfurlong Greenfields Association in the coming weeks to strongly oppose Miller Homes’ plans for Tetbury.
Mr Martin also criticised the Labour Government’s plans to build 1.5m new homes in the current Parliament.
He believes it is "driving developers to seek land that they know would never normally be granted consent".
"Tetbury has already had over a thousand new homes in the last six years, an increase of nearly 40 per cent,” he said.
"We’re a small rural town that cannot cope with any more housing.
"We have severe parking problems, unacceptably long waiting times to see a doctor and our sewage treatment works is discharging raw sewage up to 33 per cent of the time into a tiny brook where all the marine life has now died."
New analysis by the think tank the Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) finds that developers have already secured planning permission for over 1.4 million homes since 2007 but have not gone on to build them.
Common reasons for this include developers wanting to increase the land’s value before selling it on and land banking to slow building rates and maintain high house prices.
IPPR is suggesting new laws to force developers to build within a certain time frame of securing planning permission, or face sanctions.
Dr Maya Singer Hobbs, senior research fellow at IPPR, said: “The Government doesn’t need to rip up the planning system to build 1.5 million new homes.
"Many of the blockers to housing and infrastructure delivery are not planning related. Reasons include water shortages, private developers slowing delivery to maintain profits, and a lack of strategic oversight of large infrastructure projects.
"Market driven house-building is broken, and won’t deliver the 1.5 million homes the government has promised."
And Chris Giles, LGA Secretary and former community spaces manager at South Gloucestershire Council, said the Government’s housing strategy is “too crude to take into account the granularity of very real problems for communities like ours”.
"We don’t have the facilities or amenities to support this many people. We don’t have jobs for them or places at schools, public transport or leisure facilities.
"Dumping houses on us just creates massive problems. The Government doesn’t seem to understand this and the developers obviously couldn’t care less"
"Developers always claim that they are fulfilling housing needs but they are not in this instance.
"The housing we need in Tetbury is for young people, low income families who work here and for older people with mobility issues.
"That means creating accessible dwellings within easy reach of the shops, the school and the surgery.
"This site is too far out of town and besides, there’s no shortage of three or four bedroom detached homes in Tetbury for the well-off commuter class. They are not needed here, or anywhere else for that matter."
"Development on this site also creates a serious security issue for the Royal household. It would bring significant numbers of people living within yards of the existing close protection zone covered by Section 128 of the Serious Organised Crime & Police Act 2005, which is patrolled by armed officers."
Mr Martin said the development would ultimately be "the acid test for Labour’s planning policy".
"If it goes ahead it will mean the death of any meaningful concept of planning or conservation in this country," he said.
"Development on this site would contravene every single rational planning objection and conservation principle.
"The Labour government will try to claim they are doing this for the benefit of ordinary people but in reality, the only people benefitting are wealthy landowners and corporate developers, and the short term political interests of the government.
"This isn’t about Nimbys versus Yimbys, it’s about protecting our countryside and community from cynical exploitation.
"Objectively it doesn’t make any difference that this is happening on the King’s doorstep, except perhaps to prove that now, nowhere in Britain is safe.
"It shows just how vulnerable our rural communities are to a planning system that is stacked against us and the natural beauty of where we live."
A spokesperson for Miller Homes confirmed they have been in "positive" talks with councillors about plans for new housing in the Tetbury area.
"Proposals for new, sustainable housing in this part of Gloucestershire have already included positive communication with local councillors, and we will share further information on plans for this land, to engage with the community, in the near future," they said.
The King, Highgrove and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government have been approached for comment.