Councillors in Peasedown St John have expressed their disappointment at the approval of planning permission to build over 80 homes in the Greenlands Road area of the village.
The application by Curo, the not-for-profit housing and support organisation, was approved at a B&NES Council’s Planning Committee meeting on Wednesday, 14th March.
In a statement, Peasedown councillors Karen Walker and Sarah Bevan said: “We’re hugely disappointed with B&NES Council’s decision to permit the building of 89 homes on an unsuitable, steep area of land in Greenlands Road, Peasedown St John.
“We have been, since such plans first came to light in 2012, opposed in principle to any houses being built on this land.
“Over the last twenty-five years our village has seen considerable growth with more than 1,300 new homes built.
“The village has not seen the same level of growth in the amount of amenities though, meaning that those services we have are stretched almost beyond capacity.
“We could not support any application by Curo to build housing in Greenlands Road for the reasons we’ve continuously outlined, which have been:
- The gradient/landscape of the land is unsuitable for a housing development of this size
- Access to and from Greenlands Road (via Bath Road) is dangerous. The junction already has severe visibility issues. The access via Firgrove Lane is narrow and unsuitable for large numbers of vehicles.
- Greenlands Road and nearby Hillside View already suffer from a severe shortage of adequate parking spaces. The removal of the current parking ‘frontage’ in Greenlands Road will only exasperate this problem
- Local services, such as the school, GP surgery, dental surgery etc are already full to capacity.
- The strength of public opinion against this development is far greater than any other campaign we’ve seen locally in the last twenty years. More than 1,000 villagers signed the petition against the development, almost 300 objection letters were sent to B&NES, and the full weight of the parish council, neighbouring parish councils, and B&NES councillors (past and present) have opposed any attempt previously to build homes here.
“Housing on this site in Greenlands Road is highly inappropriate, and we have deep reservations over how Curo can safely build them without causing damage to the environment and surrounding homes.
“We’ll be calling a meeting with Curo’s directors over the coming months to address our concerns, and those of the hundreds of residents who’ve contacted us.
“As the house building process starts we want to ensure that local residents are consulted and informed every step along the way.”
