For those of you who don’t already know, this application (19/00963/OUT) for 40 houses on Berry Hill Road was REFUSED by the planning committee of Cherwell District Council.
The main reasons for the refusal were summarised in the Decision as follows:
- The development proposed, by reason of its scale and siting beyond the built up limits of the village, in open countryside and taking into account the number of dwellings already permitted in Adderbury, with no further development identified through the Adderbury Neighbourhood Plan 2014-2031, is considered to be unnecessary, undesirable and unsustainable development. The site itself is in an unsustainable location on the edge of the village, distant from local services and facilities and would result in a development where future occupiers would be highly reliant on the private car for day to day needs.
- The development proposed, by virtue of its poorly integrated relationship with existing built development, its extension beyond the built limits of the village (beyond the Adderbury Settlement Boundary as defined in the Adderbury Neighbourhood Plan 2014 – 2031) causing significant urbanisation and its visual impact on the rural character, appearance of the locality and local settlement pattern, would cause unacceptable harm to the character and appearance of the area and the rural setting of the village and would fail to reinforce local distinctiveness.
- In the absence of the completion of a satisfactory S106 Planning Agreement, the Local Planning Authority is not convinced that the necessary infrastructure directly required both on and off site as a result of this development, in the interests of safeguarding public infrastructure, mitigating highway safety concerns, delivering mixed and balanced communities by the provision of affordable housing and securing on site future maintenance arrangements will be provided.
It is encouraging to see that Cherwell District Council recognise that developments on the edge of West Adderbury will lead to increased traffic flows, and that such “urbanisation” would be detrimental to the rural character, appearance and settlement pattern of West Adderbury, and to its “local distinctiveness”.