‘Cramped’ Yapton housing development turned down

Developer Seaward Homes wants to build 75 homes on land north of Main Road and to the west of properties in North End Road.

The site called ‘Bonhams Field’ already has full planning permission for 56 homes.

But the developer says it was made aware by Arun District Council of the need in the area for more smaller properties.

As a result it has submitted fresh plans, upping the proposed number of homes on site from 56 to 75, an extra 19 dwellings.

But Yapton Parish Council has opposed the new application and 53 letters of objection have been received from residents.

Arun planning officers have agreed with some of the points raised and refused planning permission as they feel the ‘intensification’ of the site would result in both harm to the character of the area and to the amenity of future occupiers.

In their report, they suggested the extra 19 homes would boost the council’s ‘severe’ housing land supply shortfall, with council policy to seek the best possible use of land by reflecting or improving upon the character of the site and surrounding area.

However they raised concerns about the effect of increasing the number of dwellings and what this would do to the ‘formerly spacious nature of the development layout’.

Their report added: “The low density approach to the existing approved scheme was carefully negotiated at the outline application stage with input from the council’s heritage advisers. In particular, the scheme was designed to ensure that it would be acceptable in terms of the approach into the village and the conservation area (from west to east).

“The conservation officer is of the opinion that the layout creates the feeling of a modern housing estate which fails to successfully integrate into the existing built form and historic grain of the village as can be seen in the conservation area.

“It is considered that this is out of character, especially for a key edge of village location such as this. This view is shared by the parish council and several local residents. Furthermore, the council’s landscape officer considers that the proposal looks very cramped and overdeveloped.”

A subsequent letter from Seaward’s planning agent describes how the recommended refusal ‘came completely out of the blue’ and points out how the revised scheme is still a lower density than other approved sites in the countryside on the edge of Yapton.