Seven years later and plans for almost 100 homes near Broughton return

A developer is trying to secure planning permission to build almost 100 homes near a Preston village – seven years after their first attempt was knocked back.

Plans have once again been lodged with Preston City Council for a proposed estate on land off Garstang Road on the edge of Broughton.

The authority refused a previous blueprint submitted in 2018 by Gladman Developments to create up to 95 properties on the plot, south of the Broughton bypass.

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Its previous application was rejected by the city council after it was judged it would lead to “an unplanned and inappropriate expansion of a rural village”, going against local planning policy.  

However, the firm has now turned its attention back to the same site, where it is seeking outline approval for the same number of dwellings – made up of a potential mix of apartments and detached and semi-detached properties with between one and four bedrooms.      

In a fresh bid sent to town hall planners, Gladman outlines the reasons it believes the proposal justifies “a departure” from the council’s development plan – including by making “a substantial contribution to addressing [local] housing needs. 

But it argues that even if the city council does not agree with that analysis, it should give the green light to the proposal anyway, because – the company claims – Preston does not have a five-year supply of land set aside to meet its new housing targets.

That is requirement placed on local authorities by national planning legislation.   A failure to achieve it means councils are obliged to approve sustainable developments – even if they do not chime with their own planning policies – unless the benefits of bridging the housing shortfall are “significantly” outweighed by any disadvantages of the plans on the table.

Preston City Council briefly found itself in that position earlier this year, but the authority now insists that it can prove a 6.7-year housing land supply after the latest calculations.

Gladman stresses that 35 percent of the proposed homes on the new Broughton estate would fall into the discounted ‘affordable housing’ category, a quota the authority usually demands for developments in rural areas. 

It also says the plans, which includes pockets of public open space, would not result in development “encroaching any further north than James Towers Way [the bypass]” –  and that they “cannot realistically be considered to comprise unacceptable development which would harm the open and rural character of the surrounding open countryside”.

“James Towers Way creates a natural visual and physical boundary, separating the site from the wider countryside and creating an opportunity for housing growth within a well defined village boundary,” the firm adds.

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