Tamworth Ashby Road plans revealed
Outline plans for 200 homes on the edge of Tamworth have been approved. The development at Ashlands Farm on Ashby Road would also see the construction of a community facility, café or pub.
The scheme will involve three fields, which have been graded as very good quality agricultural land, will be built on. Access to the development would be from Ashby Road, with a new ghost junction constructed to enable right turns into the site.
No statutory consultee objected to the scheme, however 22 letters of objection were submitted. Concerns over highway safety, loss of wildlife and land not being allocated in the local plan were highlighted.
Agent Kirstie Clifton told the planning committee: “Bloor Homes is a family owned business with their West Midlands base located in the borough. They’re committed to delivering a cohesive new community for Tamworth and new homes that will bring significant economic benefits in job creation and contributions to the local economy, as well as council tax revenue that will support local services and infrastructure.
“Preapplication consultations with the local community and key stakeholders have informed the proposals resulting in a reduced number of dwellings to allow for the inclusion of land for a community facility, café or public house. It has also reinforced the need to robustly address highways and drainage matters.”
Local ward councillor Gareth Coates objected to the proposals. He said: “In the current form, this development as the ward councillor, I don’t think it is a good fit for the town. The education funding needs addressing, for me as the ward councillor, we have several schools in the ward, the education funding, I think needs to be ring fenced for ward schools because it just goes to the county council and then just gets absorbed.
“The infrastructure in Tamworth is at breaking point and this has been said many times. Just last week residents were told by doctors not to call for two days because they had no appointments. So having a community centre in this, for me, this should be a doctors or a dentists.”
The development would see contributions made to education, local health care and local infrastructure. Additionally the development would see a biodiversity net gain, increasing the number of hedgerow units by 24 per cent and habitat units by 26 per cent.
Councillor Tina Clements questioned the market housing mix, which would see less two bedroom houses built compared to the policy requirements. She said: “The table of percentages of mix of buildings suggests that you’re building houses that are bigger than we actually require here in Tamworth.
“I’d like to make sure that this is dealt with now rather than later. We don’t need four bedroom houses, we need first time buyer houses. We need houses our kids can get on to the property ladder.”
The development would see 20 per cent affordable housing, the 40 homes would be a mix of 25 per cent intermediate tenure and 75 per cent rented. However, the open market housing is proposed to see 37 per cent four-bed houses against a policy requirement of 15 per cent and 47 per cent three-bed houses against the policy requirement of 39 per cent.
Bloor Homes agent, Kirstie Clifton responded by saying the 20 per cent of affordable housing has already been agreed. She said: “This is based on advice that was provided by local consultants in terms of the appropriate mix in this particular instance but we will have to prove that. So the affordable housing mix is confirmed but the market mix will be subject to further assessment.”
Councillors at Tamworth Borough Council agreed with the officers recommendation and approved the outline application. This means that a future application detailing layout, scale and appearance will be submitted at a later date.