VV WEB FINAL Feb18 184

Village Voice February/March 2018
ASHWELLS
DEVELOPMENT
APPLICATION
The Masterplan
The application for Ashwells has been prepared
and submitted by Savills on behalf of WDC,
who own the land, for the erection of up to 102
dwellings (fewer than the 120 proposed in the
Local Plan) and the Masterplan shows the
proposed access roads, housing layout and
public open space and landscaping. The former
chalk pit will also be retained and landscaped to
add to the public open space. Existing footpath
access through the site will be retained or
realigned. The plan allows for the extension of
the new road through the site to the south to
connect with the adjoining development area of
6 houses (Parcel 9) of the Gomm Valley
development.
Houses
The 102 houses will be made up of 16 x 4-bed,
59 x 3-bed, 20 x 2-bed and 7 self-build houses,
in a combination of detached houses, semidetached
houses, and terraces, with a density on
4ha (10 acres) of 25.5 dwellings per hectare.
Parking standards will be 2 spaces per 2/3 bed
dwelling, and 2.5 per 4-bed dwelling. The
visualisations show mostly traditional-looking
2-storey houses with a few of 2 1/2 stories. The
7 self-build houses will be encouraged to adopt
more contemporary designs. WDC is looking at
ways to include some starter homes/shared
equity houses for first-time buyers with local
connections. It is an Outline application so no
detail design is shown for the dwellings, but it is
the Council's stated aim to achieve good quality
design and materials.
Cock Lane
The application envisages that the first thing
completed will be the widening of Cock Lane
between the pumping station/cemetery entrance
and the phone mast, from approx. 3.7 m to 6.0
m. A new access road connects into the
development at the mid-point, about 50 metres
further down Cock Lane than previously
illustrated. A pedestrian crossing doubles as the
only proposal for traffic calming on this section.
Once the development is completed the existing
Ashwells exit will only be used for vehicles
leaving the site. All ingoing traffic will be via
the new access road.
Widening of Cock Lane south of the
Ashwells site is not included in this application.
Further details of any connection of Cock Lane
to the proposed new spine road through to
Gomm Road will be included in the Gomm
Valley development application. Documents in
this application make it clear that there is no
current safety issue for Cock Lane with only 5
slight injuries over 5 years, and none in the
section we wish to retain as a single track. We
are strongly opposing any such through-road
connection or widening of Cock Lane south of
the new access road.
The petition ‘Keep Cock
Lane Single’ was closed on
20th November with 539
signatures. Whilst many had
anticipated that this would
be treated as a single-ward
issue, causing a debate of
the whole Council, WDC
have decided it is a multi-ward issue that
requires 8,000 signatures for a debate. We are in
discussion with them about this decision.
Construction
The enabling works, building the new access
road and putting in groundworks and
infrastructure, will all be carried out as Phase 1
of the development. The Council’s aim is to
complete the infrastructure then dispose of
serviced sites to housebuilders, with 7 serviced
plots to self-builders. Construction traffic for the
Phase 1 infrastructure works will use the
existing Ashwells cul-de-sac access.
www.pennandtylersgreen.org.uk