I believe there is overwhelming support for the Neighbourhood Plan other than one contentious issue, namely future housing development. To assist villagers in their voting decision in the 6th May referendum could you please confirm whether my understanding is correct? That is:
A VOTE FOR the NP will give some protection against unwanted development in Crudwell. It is also a vote for 24 houses (initially) to be built on Tuners Lane. There will be no opportunity to object to planning permission being granted for the Tuners Lane development if the NP is endorsed. It is effectively a ‘done deal’.
A VOTE AGAINST the NP may open the doors to speculative developers who could apply to build any number of houses anywhere in the village, including Tuners Lane. However, objections could be raised against such proposals as part of the planning process. (This approach was successful in restricting the number of houses proposed at Ridgeway Farm, Tetbury Lane.)
In the interests of transparency, a simple yes / no answer will help us all in making an informed voting decision.
Anyone can make representations to any application, whether the Neighbourhood Plan is made (i.e. the community votes “yes” overall) or not (i.e. the community votes “no” overall).
The main difference is that if the Neighbourhood Plan is made, the Tuners Lane site is very likely to be developed, and the community will have a say over how this happens, but development elsewhere is not likely.
On the other hand, if the Neighbourhood Plan is not made, the Tuners Lane site is still likely to be developed, the community will have very little say over how this happens, and development is more likely elsewhere in Crudwell as well.
If the local community votes in favour of the Neighbourhood Plan it will be made, and the Tuners Lane site will be allocated for 20-25 dwellings, but the Neighbourhood Plan gives the community more control over how it is developed, and it minimises the chances of applications being approved in multiple locations around Crudwell.
If the Neighbourhood Plan is made, then a planning application for the Tuners Lane site would still need to be submitted, setting out how the site will be developed, and the local community would influence the development through the Community Liaison Group, the extra measures set out in policy DD1 and the Design Guide. In this scenario, anyone can make representations to the application, including objections, even if the site is allocated.
If the Neighbourhood Plan is not made, there are two issues:
- That the local community lose the potential to influence the Tuners Lane development;
- That development may well come forward elsewhere too.
Wiltshire’s Housing Land Supply shortfall means an application can still be expected on the Tuners Lane site if the Neighbourhood Plan is not made, and applications would also be likely elsewhere around Crudwell. Anyone could make representations to these applications too, including objections, but there would be no local rules set out in the Neighbourhood Plan for any of these applications to follow.
If the Neighbourhood Plan is made, then permission is much less likely to be granted on speculative sites because of the way the national planning rules work. These national rules say that if an area does not have a made Neighbourhood Plan, then speculative applications are more likely to be approved when the Housing Land Supply falls below 5 years. If the Neighbourhood Plan is made, then the Housing Land Supply needs to fall to below 3 years for speculative applications to be more likely to be approved. Wiltshire’s Housing Land Supply is currently about 4.5 years.
So the Neighbourhood Plan protects Crudwell from speculative developments, as well as giving the community more say over how the Tuners Lane site is developed.
Is it true that a Neighbourhood Plan is redundant after two years?
Many of you will have seen a flyer suggesting that Wiltshire Council’s housing supply problem negates the Crudwell neighbourhood plan. The situation is more complex than the leaflet suggests, so we would like to give a more factually correct update.
Government planning policy explains that where a planning application conflicts with an up to date development plan, permission should not usually be granted.
However, where the local authority (in our case Wiltshire Council) cannot demonstrate that it has a 5 year supply of housing land available, then what is known as “the tilted balance” applies. This makes it more likely that a speculative housing application outside settlement boundaries would be approved. But when a neighbourhood plan that allocates a housing site has been in place for 2 years or less, the tilted balance only applies when supply falls below 3 years.
Wiltshire’s housing supply is currently a little under 5 years, but is way above 3 years. This means that by having a neighbourhood plan in place that allocates a housing site, Crudwell is much better protected against speculative housing applications than it would be if there was no neighbourhood plan in place.
It is true that the strong protection provided by the neighbourhood plan only lasts for two years, but the neighbourhood plan is certainly not “redundant” after this time. After a neighbourhood plan has been in place for two years, it still provides some protection against speculative housing developments, and certainly more protection than if there was no neighbourhood plan in place at all; it just doesn’t provide the same strong level of protection as it does for the first two years.
Who are the Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group and the Focus Groups?
The Crudwell Neighbourhood Plan Steering Group was inaugurated by the Parish Council in July 2017. The members include two Parish Councillors and all are unpaid volunteers from a wide spread of locations in the village. The group has a Chair, Vice Chair, Secretary, Treasurer, Parish Council Liaisons and two other members.
Four Focus Groups were established, following the key themes arising from the Initial Public Engagement Questionnaire. 28 unpaid volunteers from a widespread area of the village and the hamlets within the parish joined the Focus Groups:
I. Development & Design
II. Infrastructure & Transport
III. Community
IV. Environment
Initial Workshops were held by each group in March/April 2018 and this was followed by a joint Focus Group Exhibition on the 5th May 2018.
Following the Focus Group’s engagement and consultation four major reports were delivered by the volunteer leads which summarised the findings and informed the next stage of the Plan leading to the 8 week Regulation 14 consultation which commenced in November 2018. These reports can be found in the Consultation Statement on the portal at Consultation Statement_Redacted.pdf
The Steering Group provides a monthly report to the Parish Council and also in What’s on In Crudwell (two weekly during Covid 19). Subscribers to a free mailing list of over 297 parishioners (nearly 260 households) also receive regular reports via email, normally monthly or at key stages of the plan’s progress.
Why can’t development be on the east of the A429?
For the neighbourhood plan to allocate land for housing we need to be sure that it is deliverable, otherwise developers will submit speculative applications and make the case the 25 houses we need won’t be delivered, so their site should be permitted instead.
Ten potential housing sites were submitted to be considered for allocation. The reason for discounting most of them at an early stage is set out in paragraphs 6.23 to 6.31 of the Sustainability Appraisal and Evidence Base document.
In response to this specific question, four sites east of the A429 were submitted. These are:
- Carpenters Yard (site A)
- Coach House (site B)
- Ravenscourt (site C)
- Land adjacent Carpenters Yard (site E)
Sites A, B and E are not deliverable before 2026 according to their owners.
Site C is too small to deliver any affordable housing. Please see “Why is a single housing site proposed for allocation for 20 to 25 dwellings, rather than a number of smaller sites?” for an explanation of this.
This means that there no housing sites were proposed east of the A429 which are deliverable before 2026, and the neighbourhood plan cannot allocate an undeliverable site.
Why does the Neighbourhood Plan favour the Tuners Lane site over the Ridgeway Farm site when Wiltshire Council preferred the Ridgeway Farm site over the Tuners Lane site?
The reasoning behind the choice of housing site is complicated, and it is set out in detail in paragraphs 6.23 to 6.72 of the Sustainability Appraisal and Evidence Base.
However, to summarise the process, when Wiltshire’s Housing Site Allocations Plan was first drafted, Ridgeway Farm was the only site promoted for allocation.
Wiltshire Council needed to allocate a site at Crudwell because there was a strategic (i.e. county wide) housing need to meet, so Wiltshire Council officers chose Ridgeway Farm.
By the time the submission draft of the Housing Site Allocations Plan was drafted, Tuners Lane had also been promoted, so the Wiltshire Council officers considered this site too, but dismissed it at that stage. Officers’ reasoning was:
“It is considered that the site appears reasonably well-located to village services however there is uncertainty that the carriageway is suitable for increased numbers of vehicles and that comprehensive and attractive routes for pedestrians and cyclists are deliverable. There are also potential issues with respect to heritage and proximity to the conservation area.”
However, in July 2018, Wiltshire Council’s Cabinet (i.e. Wiltshire Councillors, not officers) decided that it was not appropriate for Wiltshire Council to allocate any sites in Crudwell when the Crudwell Neighbourhood Plan was planning to do it.
In August 2018, the Steering Group received independent advice that told us developing the Tuners Lane site would have less of an impact on the village’s heritage assets than developing Ridgeway Farm would. This is at Appendix 5 of the Sustainability Appraisal and Evidence Base.
The Inspector who considered the Housing Site Allocations Plan agreed with Wiltshire’s Councillors in deciding that, rather than allocating the Ridgeway Farm site, it would be best to let the Neighbourhood Plan decide where housing goes in Crudwell, so in June 2019, he asked for the Ridgeway Farm allocation to be deleted.
Just before that, an appeal Inspector considered an appeal against the refused Ridgeway Farm application, and raised a number of issues with the Ridgeway Farm site which need to be considered when deciding which site to allocate in the Neighbourhood Plan.
In November 2019, we received independent advice that told us that it is easier to get to most of the village’s facilities safely on foot from the Tuners Lane site than it would be from the Ridgeway Farm site. This is at Appendix 16 of the Sustainability Appraisal and Evidence Base.
The independent heritage and highways advice allayed Wiltshire Council officers’ concerns about the Tuners Lane site’s accessibility and the impact that its development would have on local heritage assets, and the appeal Inspector’s decision raises new concerns about Ridgeway Farm. This is why Wiltshire Council officers have now allowed the Neighbourhood Plan, including the allocation of Tuners Lane, to move forward to examination.
What is the Neighbourhood Plan doing about new housing?
The Neighbourhood Plan allocates a single site for 20-25 homes at Tuners Lane in policy DD1. The policy includes a list of requirements that the development should meet to ensure that it is safe, well designed and meets the needs that it generates. The policy requires the developer to work with the local community through the planning process.
If there is no strategic need for Wiltshire’s Housing Site Allocations Plan to identify any housing sites in the Malmesbury Community Area, why is the Crudwell NP allocating any at all?
The consultation on the draft neighbourhood plan showed that the local community consider there to be a lack of affordable housing in Crudwell. Wiltshire Council’s Parish Survey came to the same conclusion. Therefore, the neighbourhood plan aims to deliver a site that includes affordable housing to help ensure that future generations can afford to live in Crudwell.
It is also worth remembering that if the Crudwell neighbourhood plan does not allocate a housing site, then Crudwell is vulnerable to speculative proposals from opportunistic developers. With a “made” (i.e. completed or adopted) neighbourhood plan, the local community has much more control over developments in the Parish.
Why is a single housing site proposed for allocation for 20 to 25 dwellings, rather than a number of smaller sites?
One of the main reasons for providing new homes in Crudwell is to meet the identified need for eight affordable homes from the Parish Survey. The community told us that providing new affordable homes in Crudwell was important.
The Government’s planning rules do not allow affordable homes to be sought on sites of 10 homes or less. In other words, they can only be sought on sites with 11 or more homes. So, to enable the provision of affordable homes, we needed to find sites big enough to accommodate 11 or more homes. If one site has 11 homes, then the other would need to have 11 to 14, so that affordable housing could be required on both, in principle, while meeting the overall requirement for 20 to 25 dwellings.
Following the regulation 14 consultation, the Steering Group met with the Tuners Lane and Ridgeway Farm site promoters. One of the issues raised for discussion with both developers was the potential for the Neighbourhood Plan to allocate two smaller sites, delivering a total of 20 to 25 dwellings.
Both developers noted that this would impact on their ability to deliver a number of other community benefits, including the delivery of affordable homes and other on site facilities, high quality design and green technologies and to make contributions towards other existing services and facilities in Crudwell. On this basis, the Steering Group concluded that a single site should be allocated for 20 to 25 dwellings.
Why is the Crudwell NP allocating the Tuners Lane site?
Ten potential housing sites were suggested to the Steering Group when we asked for sites earlier in 2018. Of these, some were not available to be redeveloped before 2026, some had a capacity for fewer than 11 dwellings (so no affordable housing would be delivered on them), one was not adjacent to Crudwell village (so developing it would conflict with Wiltshire’s locational strategy for new development), and one would have resulted in many more homes than are needed. This is summarised in paragraphs 6.23 to 6.32 of the Sustainability Appraisal and Evidence Base. The individual site assessment sheets are in the Design and Development Focus Group report included in the Consultation Statement.
This left only two sites that:
- Were large enough to deliver affordable homes; and
- Would deliver housing before 2026; and
- Would meet the Wiltshire Core Strategy preference for expansion of Crudwell village rather than the smaller villages and hamlets in Crudwell parish.
These sites are Tuners Lane (site J) and Ridgeway Farm phase 2 (site F).
When we weighed up all of the evidence, Tuners Lane was the considered to be the best site, mainly because we have independent advice that tells us that it is easier to get to most of the village’s facilities safely on foot from the Tuners Land site than it would be from the Ridgeway Farm site, and because developing the Tuners Lane site would have less of an impact on the village’s heritage assets that developing Ridgeway Farm would.
What about considering Ridgeway Farm phase 2 with 20-25 houses?
When we weighed up all of the evidence, Tuners Lane was the considered to be the best site, mainly because we have independent advice that tells us that it is easier to get to most of the village’s facilities safely on foot from the Tuners Land site than it would be from the Ridgeway Farm site, and because developing the Tuners Lame site would have less of an impact on the village’s heritage assets that developing Ridgeway Farm would.
If we reduce the size of the site allocation or split across more than one, what is the impact on affordable housing, S106 obligations and on the infrastructure levy?
As long as the housing site has a capacity of 11 or more dwellings or the total housing floorspace is greater than 1,000 square metres, then affordable housing at a rate of 40% of the total dwellings and S106 obligations (for example towards funding the teenagers’ play facilities) can still be sought. The Community Infrastructure Levy is usually payable on any development that creates one or more new dwellings.
However, following the regulation 14 consultation, the Steering Group met with the Tuners Lane and Ridgeway Farm site promoters. One of the issues raised for discussion with both developers was the potential for the Neighbourhood Plan to allocate two smaller sites, delivering a total of 20 to 25 dwellings.
Both developers noted that this would impact on their ability to deliver a number of other community benefits, including the delivery of affordable homes and other on site facilities, high quality design and green technologies and to make contributions towards other existing services and facilities in Crudwell. On this basis, the Steering Group concluded that a single site should be allocated for 20 to 25 dwellings.
How are flooding and sewerage issues being addressed?
Firstly, we only considered allocating housing sites that are not at risk of flooding.
Secondly, policy IT1 ensures that after any site is developed, surface water flows off the site are lower than they are currently. This is usually done by storing water in heavy rain on site, in a pond or in underground tanks, and then allowing this water to release when the local waterways can cope with it.
We have been told that sewerage flooding occurs when surface water gets into the sewerage system, so controlling the rate of surface water run off from any development site will help to control this, and Wessex Water has fixed a number of leaks that allow surface water in already.
Finally, policy DD1, which allocates the Tuners Lane site, explicitly requires the Tuners Lane developer to ensure that the site does not floor and that it will drain safely and at a lower rate than currently, and that it should not make existing flooding worse, and should ideally improve it.
What will the impact of the Tuners Lane development be on traffic volumes?
The independent technical report that was produced by Cole Easdon Consultants for the neighbourhood plan concluded that the Tuners Lane development would result in an additional 14 vehicle trips in the morning and evening peaks, i.e. between 08:00 and 09:00 and between 17:00 and 18:00. This equates to roughly one extra vehicle trip every 4¼ minutes.
This is the busiest time so traffic numbers will be lower at other times.
How will the NP ensure new homes are more affordable for local people?
The proposed site is sized specifically so that we can deliver 8 affordable homes for Crudwell. This has been a key factor in all our work to date.
How does the plan enable us to secure houses which are really affordable in terms of the housing market rather than just social housing?
The Government’s definition of affordable housing includes a range of different categories of affordable housing, including:
- social rent;
- rent at least 20% below local market rents;
- starter homes (for first time buyers below 40 years of age with a discount of at least 20% below market sale price);
- discounted market sales housing (similar to starter homes but not necessarily to young first time buyers);
- shared ownership housing (where the occupant owns a proportion and rents a proportion from a housing association).
In principle, the 40% affordable homes provided on site can be any of these, or a mixture. Wiltshire Council maintains a housing register with input from housing associations, so they know what particular affordable homes are needed locally, and they are likely to have an input into the affordable homes that are provided based on this local need.
In addition, policy DD1 requires the remaining 60% market housing on the Tuners Lane site to be predominantly smaller, low cost dwellings.
Additionally, policy DD1 provides the Community Liaison Group, which will be set up to work with the developer on the planning application, with an opportunity to influence the type of affordable and market housing provided on the Tuners Lane site.
What will be the effect of the Tuners Lane development on Crudwell Primary School?
At an average of 0.3 primary school children per dwelling, 20 to 25 dwellings would result in an additional 6 to 7.5 children at Crudwell Primary School, although this could be higher or lower. For reference, with the 10 houses at Chapel Way, there were no net new pupils at the school.
Policy DD1, which allocates the Tuners Lane site for housing, requires the developer to provide funding towards the primary school to cater for the additional children that would result.
The neighbourhood plan also includes a policy – CL1 – aimed at protecting the school.
What measures is the NP taking to address concerns about pedestrian safety?
One of the reasons that the Tuners Lane site was chosen over the Ridgeway Farm site is that the Tuners Lane is less busy than Tetbury Lane, and it is easier to extend the existing footpath all the way to the A429 on Tuners Lane.
We have also included a policy – IT2 – which requires developers to demonstrate how pedestrians will safely access the parish’s facilities from the site.
There has been some fantastic road safety work carried out recently by Wiltshire Council, and the Parish Council will continue to work for improvements.
How will the NP ensure that the design of any new development is in
keeping with its surroundings?
The neighbourhood plan includes a brand new Crudwell Design Guide which new developments should comply with. This is referred to in policy DD2.
For the first time, we capture the identity of the Parish and include design cues from existing properties, particularly those of historical standing within the Parish.
The Tuners Lane allocation policy, DD1, specifically requires the design of that development to be in keeping with Crudwell’s character and to accord with the Design Guide.
Policy DD1 also provides the Community Liaison Group with the opportunity to influence the development’s design.
What measures are being taken in the NP to ensure low carbon footprint for developments eg will there be requirements for grey water recycling, solar panels, wind power etc?
Preserving the natural environment and wildlife in Crudwell is very important to Parishioners. 85% of responders rated the impact of development on biodiversity as being either extremely or very important.
The regulation 14 draft policy included policies to protect biodiversity and to encourage renewable energy, as long as it is in the right place.
Wiltshire Council told us that their Core Strategy policies deal with these issues sufficiently already. We plan to look into environmental issues in more detail in the next Neighbourhood Plan, to 2036, but for now we felt that it was best to get the Neighbourhood Plan made quickly, so that we are protected from inappropriate development.
Is there a risk that we could end up with housing at Tuners Lane and Ridgeway Farm?
Yes it’s always possible, but we’re minimising the risk by having a neighbourhood plan which allocates a site for housing.
Normally, applications for housing on sites outside the settlement boundary or allocated sites would be refused, unless there is a good reason to approve it. This is partly why the Ridgeway Farm application was refused by Wiltshire Council in 2018 and then by a Government Inspector in 2019.
This balance changes if Wiltshire Council has less than 5 years worth of housing land. Then, an application like this would normally be approved unless there is a good reason to refuse it.
However, where the application relates to an area which has a made neighbourhood plan that allocates a housing site, like the Crudwell plan with Tuners Lane, then the housing requirement, in effect, reduces from 5 years to 3 years. This means that, even if Wiltshire only has something between 3 and 5 years worth of housing land, the application would still normally be refused.
What are the risks to the community if we fail to get this plan made, will we again be at the mercy of large allocations by Wiltshire Council?
Wiltshire Council planned to allocate a site for another 40 homes at Ridgeway Farm through its Housing Site Allocations Plan but they later agreed to remove that allocation on the basis that the Crudwell Neighbourhood Plan would determine the number of homes needed locally and decide where they should go. A Government Inspector agreed that the neighbourhood plan should be left to make this decision too.
If the Neighbourhood Plan does not allocate a site, there is a chance that Wiltshire Council might allocate a site for us.
However, the greatest risk would come from developers submitting planning applications because it is easier for a developer to get planning permission for housing outside Crudwell’s settlement boundary if there is no Neighbourhood Plan in place. Please see “Is there a risk that we could end up with housing at Tuners Land and Ridgeway Farm” for further details.
What happens after this plan is made? Will the next NP (to 2036) protect us from large housing allocation, or can it ensure that we develop according to the communities needs and requirements?
This Neighbourhood Plan reflects the same timetable as Wiltshire’s Core Strategy, i.e. it runs to 2026.
Wiltshire Council and Swindon Borough Council are now working together on plans that will run up to 2036. These will need to provide for more homes to meet demand between 2026 and 2036, and Wiltshire Council will need to specify the number of homes needed in Crudwell Parish up to 2036 (in theory they are supposed to do that now but this requirement has only just been introduced so they are not in a position to do so).
It is likely that Crudwell will be required to provide some more housing up to 2036, so the best way for the community to have a say in where these houses go, and also to avoid developers getting permission on other sites outside the settlement boundary, will be to produce another Neighbourhood Plan.
An application was approved in Malmesbury recently despite Malmesbury having a made Neighbourhood Plan. Could the same happen in Crudwell?
The Malmesbury application was approved because of a combination of a relatively old neighbourhood plan and the proposal causing relatively little harm.
Normally, there is a presumption against permitting new homes outside settlement boundaries. Where Wiltshire has less than 5 years housing land supply, this balance tilts in favour of approval, unless the harm “significantly and demonstrably” outweighs the benefits.
Where a neighbourhood plan was made less than two years ago, this 5 year target falls to 3 years. Wiltshire’s housing land supply hasn’t fallen that low in years (other than in the south of Wiltshire which is not relevant to Crudwell) so it is pretty unlikely to happen in the next few years either.
If the neighbourhood plan is more than two years old, in theory the three year target goes up to five years again. In practice, the weight that would be given to a made neighbourhood plan diminishes gradually over time.
The Malmesbury neighbourhood plan is more than 5 years old so its weight has diminished quite a lot, and the application proposal was not considered to cause any major problems, so the application was approved.
Would developing the Tuners Lane site mean that land between Tuners Lane and Tetbury Lane becomes an infill site?
Not really, no.
Infill is only really relevant in places defined as “small villages” in the Wiltshire Core Strategy.
Where a town or village has a settlement boundary, like Crudwell village does, the settlement boundary defines where development is acceptable (within the boundary) and where it is not acceptable (outside the boundary).
“Small villages” don’t have settlement boundaries, so the Wiltshire Core Strategy explains that development in these places will be limited to infill. Infill is not defined, but conventionally it means an undeveloped street frontage between two developed bits of frontage, so normally it would need to be on the same side of the road as the developed parts.
Crudwell parish has no small villages, so the infill policy is not really relevant. As Crudwell village is a large village with a settlement boundary, the settlement boundary is the most important factor in deciding where development is acceptable in principle, and where it is not.
Why don’t we just build 8 affordable homes?
In principle, this could happen now, based on the Wiltshire Council “Rural exceptions sites” policy (Core Policy 44), but leaving affordable housing provision to be delivered via Core Policy 44 means that the Neighbourhood Plan would not allocate any housing sites, and this means when housing land supply falls below 5 years (as it is now), then there would be a risk that speculative applications would be approved.
On the other hand, if the Neighbourhood Plan allocates a housing site, then speculative applications are only likely to be approved when the housing land supply falls below 3 years, which is much less likely.
Allocating a site solely for affordable housing would be open to the challenge that it might not be deliverable. If the Neighbourhood Plan doesn’t allocate a deliverable housing site, then there is a good chance that the Neighbourhood Plan would not be accepted by the Examiner. Even if it was accepted by the Examiner, there would be a strong risk that speculative planning applications could be approved on the basis of uncertain deliverability.
So allocating a site for 20 to 25 homes, of which 40% would be affordable, minimises the risk of speculative applications being approved, and therefore provides the best opportunity to maintain control over the location of new housing in Crudwell up to 2026.