DC/21/2503/OUT | Outline Application with Some Matters Reserved - Erection of up to 41 dwellings (with details of access to be considered) | Land South Of Forge Close Benhall Saxmundham Suffolk Benhall & Sternfield Parish Council response to : Ben Elvin Planning Consultancy ‘Addendum to Planning Statement- Response to Consultee Comments’
Benhall & Sternfield Parish Council accept that Policy SCLP12.43 of the Local Plan, approved in September 2020, allocates 1.76ha of land south of Forge Close for the development of approximately 50 dwellings. As a Parish Council, we strongly believe in developing community, and our comments are aimed at ensuring that this development will be fully integrated with the village, not a separate ‘add-on’ estate. The centre of the village and village life are around the Benhall Village Social Club, the village green and primary school. The following refers to the numbered points in Mr Elvin’s ‘Addendum to Planning Statement’: 3.2 The LHA raised the issue of links to amenities such as bus stops. Mr Elvin only answers for bus stops and ignores the ‘such as’. 3.5 The footpath link to the eastern corner of the adjacent development: As there is some disagreement about whether this can be delivered, we recommend that a copy of the Easement for the pedestrian link to Forge Close be disclosed and uploaded to this Outline Planning Application. Benhall & Sternfield Parish Council have seen a copy of it and it is extremely restrictive and exclusively in favour of the residents of phase 1 (original 9 houses) only. Further, since the roads in phase 1 are not being adopted, there is no public right over them to the link. If this link is to be part of the application, evidence of wider availability needs to be demonstrated. 4.1 bullet 3 We object to an Applicant dictating how CIL is spent: this is between the Parish Council and District Council and most certainly not to rectify shortcomings of the development. It is simply the case that non-motorised links from the development to the rest of the village are woefully inadequate. The links must be suitable for all access, including disabled access. The reality is that the link through to Forge Close is probably not deliverable, and two surfaced links should be provided. One being an upgrade of FP26 to Mill Lane, and the other being a footway from the site entrance along the B1121 to Forge Close. It is worth recalling that the latter was in the Outline for Phase 1, but ES accepted instead the restricted use link for residents only through the Forge Close car park as an alternative at Reserved Matters. 4.1 Bullet 7 Without good non-motorised link, it is inevitable that people will simply use their cars. We repeat: we accept this Site Allocation in the Local Plan but want to ensure the it is fully integrated into the current village and that it is future-proofed against being a car-dependent estate. We note the Highways and Network Rail are simply standing by their previous comments. The above should be read in conjunction with the original Consultation response, including photogarphs, by Benhall & Sternfield Parish Council: 12 July 2021 Benhall & Sternfield Parish Council 13 January 2022 Clerk.benhall@gmail.co