N.A.G. Vice Chair Antony Evans attended the Nailsea Town Council Planning Committee on Wednesday Evening. He asked a number of questions relating to:
- Phase 2 of the Taylor Wimpey Development
- The former Weston College site
- The Uplands
- Proposals for spending of proceeds from the sale of Engine Lane
Planning Application for Phase 2 of Netherton Grange
Taylor Wimpey have submitted plans for phase 2 of the development at Netherton Grange. You can view the full plans on the North Somerset Council Planning Portal under 22/P/1558/RM.
Looking at the map again I am somewhat unsettled by the orientation of the roads. Four of them, namely Street 04 in Phase 1 and Streets 05, 07 and 08 in Phase 2 end in hammerhead or direct junctions with the eastern boundary, clearly, it would seem, and as is often the case on developers’ plans, poised to leap off into the countryside for another development.
As it is, the traffic for most of the 217 houses in Phase 2 has only one way in and one way out of the site quite apart from the increase this will have on the roads just beyond the site such as St Mary’s Grove, Youngwood Lane, and Engine Lane.
But more of a concern is the abrupt end of Main Street on the southern edge of the current planned site behind Youngwood Cottage which looks as if its intended destination is to connect with Youngwood Lane or nearby. Is this the missing link that Rocke Associates in paragraph 3.12 of their Planning Statement of June 2016 deemed as, and I quote, “the internal distributor loop road”?
I don’t quite know how these things work, but would it be possible for this Council, if it wishes to that is, to ask the developers and North Somerset in their professional judgement, where they anticipate future roads are likely to go before NTC recommends or comments on this application?
Response: NTC have secured an extension on the closing date for planning applications comments which means that the developers will be visiting the next NTC planning committee meeting to discuss issues.
At their request I forwarded my query above by email to Cllrs Tonkin, Lees, and Bird and to the Clerk. NTC is, too, concerned about the road formations and the changes that have taken place since the original plan was submitted and approved.
Weston College Planning Application
Will the Weston College planning application be discussed any further by NTC? Will there be any further message to NSC about the reasons and concerns that led NTC to refer the matter back?
Response: This provoked lengthy comments at the time the question was put, when the minutes were reviewed and at various points during the meeting.
- The Clerk said that she had subsequently given NSC further information as to why the matter was referred back without comment.
- A decision was made to amend the minutes to reflect the long discussion (over an hour apparently) that took place around the issue.
- A decision was made that draft minutes should be better available to the public especially on matters of great interest.
- It was agreed to discuss the Weston College matter again at a future meeting.
The Uplands
If I am right in that I have heard that the number of affordable homes on The Uplands is to be increased from 30 to 40%, how is this going to be achieved within the current financial projections without actually increasing the number of dwellings on the site?
NTC did not know about this
McTaggert and Mickel Development at Backwell?
Does this committee have any knowledge beyond what is available on the internet that McTaggert and Mickel have been appointed, but by whom I do not know ?NSC? to build on 183 acres in Backwell which I am of course aware is not in Nailsea?
Cllr. Tonkin had heard about this too, but knew no more than what is available on the internet.
Engine Lane Revenue
Finally am I right in thinking that the Engine Lane revenue is limited to spending on capital projects? And is the hope that I believe was once expressed that it should be spent on a major legacy capital project rather than several/many smaller ones?
I know this will come up next week, but much that is currently on the grid for next week’s meeting seems to be relatively small fry.
It is still the intention of the Council to spend the money on a major project, but Cllr. Miller agreed that the grid that accompanies the agenda for the meeting on 17th August (see ‘Ask-Nailsea‘) looks like mostly a collection of small-fry items. She said that the meeting on 17th August would hopefully demistify many issues around the matter. I asked why the Grove seemed to have disappeared, and she said that it had not really but was within and across the categories on the grid.
The list of items that contain “Grove” can be viewed here.
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