Gladmans application for 80 houses off North End Road Steeple Claydon

14/03046/AOP | Outline planning application with access to be considered and all other matters reserved for up to 80 dwellings (Use Class C3) with associated access and all other matters reserved on land off North End Road, Steeple Claydon. | Land At North End Farm North End Road Steeple Claydon Buckinghamshire

Like many Steeple Claydon residents I am firmly opposed to this planning application.  The following are the main grounds for opposition:

a)  a similar application on the same site was refused in 1989 on the main grounds that it involved significant residential development outside the present built up limits of the settlement and the defined village limits onto surrounding agricultural land.  These grounds for refusal have not changed.

b)  last week Eric Pickles as Secretary of State rejected on appeal an application for 211 houses in Winslow on the grounds that they lay outside the settlement boundary, and said that such applications would only be permitted 'in exceptional circumstances'.

c) this development would encroach on open countryside which was defined as 75-90% landscape sensitivity by AVDC
as stated in its 2011 Steeple Claydon fact pack

d) Any decision would pre-empt both the village's own decisions on future growth patterns as decided in a neighbourhood plan, and AVDC's decisions on future housing growth in the new Vale of Aylesbury Plan which is under development.

e) North End Road is a narrow road with parked cars on both sides.  There are two sharp corners and no pavement.
It would be unable to accommodate the increased traffic movements caused by the development and there would be increased danger to pedestrians and cyclists.

f)  The existing surface water drainage and foul sewerage arrangements in North End Road are already inadequate,
with frequent flooding and sewer blockage.  An additional 80 houses would place an unacceptable additional strain on this.

g)  The additional village population would impact on local amenities such as the surgery and Steeple Claydon school which is already over-subscribed in the reception year.  Parking is already inadequate around the Co-Op corner with a dangerous blind bend.

I have requested that in the event of the application being approved by AVDC planning officers it will be referred to the Strategic Development Control Committee for their decision.  If this happens it is likely to be discussed in their January or February meeting.  I am also trying to get the flooding issue taken up for action by the County Council.