“Our community has suffered greatly as a result of the new housing estates arriving”, an Isle of Wight councillor has said in response to a proposed 27-house development.
Cllr Chris Jarman said Colwell Bay View Ltd’s planning application for housing on land off Colwell Road in Freshwater raises the “same issues” as previous controversial development bids at Birch Close and Heathfield.
Consultancy Plan Research said its client’s proposal would ‘go some way’ towards providing Freshwater with ‘much-needed housing’, with 35 per cent of the application’s homes classed as ‘affordable housing’.
The representative for Totland and Colwell said:
“Like the applications at Birch Close and Heathfield, this raises the same issues including the loss of valuable agricultural land, highways safety and drainage.
“Over the past years Totland and Colwell have absorbed significant new housing – mostly larger properties, completely out of style with the typical historical or Victorian aspect which so typified the village and was so admired by our residents and visitors.
“Our community has suffered greatly as a result of the new housing estates arriving at the same time as local infrastructure sharply declined.
“Our resident doctors are retired, our dental cover a fraction of what is needed, we have no banks or building societies, key businesses have shut, our sewage capacity is regularly overwhelmed with toilets overflowing into homes and raw sewage exploding onto Colwell Common.
“We were led to believe that our neighbourhood plan was key to defining local planning with its focus on renovation, brownfield sites, development boundary, protection of environment and green spaces.
"Sadly, it is all too frequently dismissed.”
He added if the plan had been followed, more social rent properties could have been brought forward “as is needed” instead of a wave of “four and five bedroom properties” which “most local people simply cannot afford”.
Mr Jarman said he believed local residents will “yet again” reflect on these concerns in their responses to this latest application.
A Plan Research statement setting out the scheme said:
“There would be a mixture of smaller and larger housing stock available for affordable rent or purchase, depending on the agreement that the council would make with the applicant.
“Our client believes the majority of the houses on the site, being two or three bedroomed, would match the evidenced housing need for the West Wight.
“There would be no significant overlooking from the proposed houses to existing dwellings.
“Occupiers of the application site would not have to rely on the private car, and so the site is sustainable.
“Within this application our client has proposed a new pavement which would run along the lane known as Brambles Chine.”
A council public consultation on the proposal will end on February 7 and a decision is expected on April 8.
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