… but the Sid Valley only seems to have ‘greenfield sites’ to offer.
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A standard assumption is that “we don’t have to build new housing on green field – as there are plenty of other places to build” – with an earlier VGS news piece looking at building back browner some five years ago.
And what of the situation today?
GOVERNMENT BROWNFIELD PASSPORTS
A month ago, there was the announcement that the government would consult on ‘brownfield passports’:
The government has issued a call for evidence on ‘brownfield passports’, which aim to speed up planning approvals for urban sites such as car parks. As signalled in the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) consultation, ministers want to introduce the passport to ensure that where proposals meet design and quality standards, “the default answer is yes”, and applications would be approved automatically. The plans form part of the government’s target of delivering 1.5 million homes this parliament.
With the government’s full announcement here: Brownfield Passport: Making the Most of Urban Land – GOV.UK
How would this impact the Sid Valley, though?
SIDMOUTH BROWN SITES: THE SID VALLEY NEIGHBOURHOOD PLAN
As far as the Sid Valley is concerned then, the question is whether there are in fact any appropriate ‘brownfield sites’.
Looking at the Sid Valley Neighbourhood Plan, it directly addresses the issue:
HOUSING: The potential sources of new housing are limited, due to the tight constraint of the built-up area boundary and the quality and value of the area of outstanding natural beauty which surround the town and its villages. There are only limited opportunities for brownfield development within the town without encroaching on much valued local facilities which are to be protected by the plan’s other policies.
Whilst brownfield sites are limited, these were the preferred places to put housing as far as the people living in the Sid Valley were concerned:
Sid Valley Consultation: In the replies to the Second Household Survey as to where any building outside the BUAB should take place, only a very small proportion of respondents identified any such sites. In fact, the most popular response to this question was that any new housing should be in “brownfield sites, within the BUAB.
If such spots are wanted in the Sid Valley, then, where would they be?
SIDMOUTH BROWNFIELD SITES: CAR PARKS
One idea, also from five years ago, was whether we should build affordable housing above car parks – a type of site suggested in the government’s own proposals last month and the comment that followed. And back in 2018, it had been put forward as an idea for the Ham carpark at Port Royal by the then-MP for East Devon:
“People are put off by multi-storey car parks, but we can do a clever design that incorporates multi-storey parking and residential homes with affordable housing – which is what we need to bring people into this part of the town.”
There were even plans for Port Royal and the Eastern Town: homes on stilts mooted during the swirl of ideas for the redevelopment of the area – the specific inspiration coming from Zedfactory unveiling a car park ‘homes on stilts’, as illustrated here:
SIDMOUTH BROWNFIELD SITES: FORMER DUMPS
Another possibility would be former rubbish dumps – or, as provocatively asked a couple of years ago in another VGS news piece: When is a ‘dump’ not a ‘dump: when it is a site for new housing. But ‘dumps’ have a history – and at a VGS meeting on housing back in 2009, concerns were raised about areas of land which were potential sites for new housing:
DEVELOPERS have targeted one of Sidmouth’s Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which, it has been alleged, was a former landfill site.
The land is between the A3052 and Higher Woolbrook on the northwest side of the town. Persimmon Homes has owned the land for some years, and now plans to build 103 homes in two fields on its northern perimeter.
A spokesperson for East Devon District Council confirmed that it has received a planning application from the building company, whose head office is based in York. “Persimmon Homes has submitted an application to build 103 homes on two fields between Higher Woolbrook and the A3052. We cannot say when the application will be completed; the planning department is snowed under at the moment, but they are deliberating on it now”.
The building project was discussed at a recent housing meeting of the Vision Group for Sidmouth. According to a member of the public who attended the meeting, and was a former engineer for the then Urban Council, this site used to be landfill more than 30 years ago. When the landfill was closed, a sewer was laid from Green Lane to near Bradfords yard. The Vision Group raised concerns about the risks of subsidence and escape of poisonous gases at the site. It also questioned the development of land now protected under AONB status; how long the authorities are obliged to wait for such infill ground to settle; and if they are monitoring potential toxic run-off.
SIDMOUTH GREENFIELD SITES: THE DRAFT LOCAL PLAN
A couple of months ago, there were council meetings on the Sidmouth housing allocations as laid out in the draft Local Plan – with one of the main questions uppermost in the minds of stakeholders being where’s the infrastructure?, as the proposed housing estates would be on… greenfield sites on the outskirts of Higher Woolbrook.
This map is from the Sidmouth site selection report:
Since then, the district council’s Strategic Planning Cttee met up this week, on 29th October and 1st November, to look at the housing allocations for East Devon – as site allocations for the local plan have to be decided:
Councillor Todd Olive, East Devon District Council’s portfolio holder for strategic planning, said: “It is vital that we progress the Local Plan quickly to ensure that we meet the timescales for the plan to be examined under the current rules. Failure to achieve this will increase the number of houses that we are required to provide, to meet ever increasing government housing numbers.” He added: “We are already having to make extremely difficult decisions to identify sites, but we need to do this to maintain an adequate housing supply and retain full control over where development is built in the district in the future.”
The Strategic Planning Committee has not formally rejected any sites under consideration.
BROWNFIELDL THE FUTURE NATIONALLY AND LOCALLY
Going back to the promises of brownfield, this week the government has promised to invest £68m in brownfield site housing development nationally. It does indeed sound promising, with thousands of new homes to be built as the government unlocks brownfield sites – but sites have to be found and, besides, East Devon is not one of the councils chosen.
There are breakthroughs of sorts, however, in these parts. Last year, a partnership was awarded almost £2million for regeneration projects, included 160 affordable homes on brownfield sites in parts of Devon and Torbay. And the year before, major plans for a huge Exeter ‘waterside community’ were revealed, where brownfield land at Water Lane, between Marsh Barton and the Exeter canal, would be turned into “new homes alongside shops, offices, restaurants and many other facilities”.
Also two years ago, East Devon made a call for sites: land needed for new developments, where the council was “particularly keen to identify opportunities for brownfield land development – which means using land that was previously used for building works and which may now be derelict or degraded.”
But here we are two years on, and the Sid Valley only seems to have ‘greenfield sites’ to offer.
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