Note to readers: The Planning Inspectorate informed us shortly after this story was published on Friday afternoon that the hearing has now been postponed "due to ill health of one of the key participants", so will be rearranged to a later date.
A public inquiry begins on Monday (May 23) into controversial plans for nearly 600 homes on high-quality farmland on the edge of Thornbury. Developers have appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after South Gloucestershire Council failed to determine their application to build on fields west of Park Farm, Butt Lane, in time.
That took the decision out of the local authority’s hands but councillors on the strategic sites delivery committee decided in January that they would have rejected the proposals if they still had the power to do so. It means the council will contest the seven-day appeal, being held virtually, over the scheme, which would include a primary school, retail and community hub, parkland, allotments and new roads, while 35 per cent of the homes – 208 of the 595 properties – would be classed as affordable.
A total of 134 residents, Thornbury Town Council and Oldbury-on-Severn Parish Council objected to the outline proposals by Barwood Development Securities for the two- and three-storey houses. South Gloucestershire Council planning committee members resolved that they would have refused permission for the “speculative” development outside the settlement boundary in the open countryside because it was contrary to the development plan and would have harmed the setting of Thornbury Castle and a church, both Grade I-listed.
Read more: Public inquiry to decide plans for 595 homes on high-quality farmland in Thornbury
They heard the local road network could not take so many new homes at the 36-hectare site and that it would be a “tragedy” to lose agricultural land deemed to be “best and most versatile”. The authority also has a healthy supply of land for homes in excess of the five-year threshold.
Barwood said it would be a “high-quality development” and include “substantial areas of public open space”. A government inspector will decide the appeal.
