Parish Council expresses support for the Parochial Charities’ plans to build almshouses on More’s Meadow.

Below are some extracts from the minutes of the 22 January 2020 meeting of the Planning Committee.

The PC are supportive of the fact that we need more affordable housing in the village and that of the 10 sites which could be available for such purposes this site comes out as most appropriate.

This proposal allows us to have 21 Almshouses (social housing and not ‘affordable housing’) without the necessity of commercially viable houses that a developer would require on other sites.

Whilst being extremely concerned about the use of and the diminishing of our Green Belt, this site is tucked away between existing development and the railway line in a section of Green Belt that is at present allotments and does not impact any sight lines or views.

The design features also enable the dwellings to merge into the landscape and it was agreed that we supported this site for such a development.

We would not consider any of the other sites as suitable and are not setting a precedent for Green Belt use, only supporting this site. We believe this is a genuine Exception Site and is being proposed appropriately.

At the end of this discussion it was proposed, seconded and unanimously endorsed by GSPC Planning Executive Committee that we support this application.

The full minutes can be found here on the Parish Council website.

The planning application can be found here on the South Cambs District Council website.