House build to go ahead (From Gazette Series)

House build to go ahead

NINE new homes are set to spring up in Chipping Sodbury on a site which had previously been investigated by the Secretary of State for Environment.

Culverhill House will now be demolished and the land off Love Lane will house a number of families in four two-storey and five two-and-a-half-story homes.

Although South Gloucestershire Council's development control (east) committee members reached a majority vote in support of the scheme, existing residents did not come to the same decision.

At a sites inspection meeting earlier this year, 15 members of the public turned up to make sure their alleged loss of privacy and increased traffic pollution did not go unnoticed.

At the committee's meeting in Kingswood last week John Kelly, speaking on behalf of the 77 members of Culverhill Residents' Association, said: "We would seek deferment of the application for re-negotiation of five properties as there is certainly not much in the way of privacy between gardens."

Further complaints raised by residents concerned the design of the new houses and their overbearing impact on nearby properties, not least because the site up for development is physically higher.

Sodbury councillor Linda Boon told committee members she was worried that residents had not been given enough time to lodge their objections.

She said: "I received two letter from residents of Culverhill Road and both told me the consultation period finished on December 9, two days before we decide on the issue.

"I appreciate that we have taken into account their views but the majority of the report was already written before the consultation was finished. I find that a little strange."

But area planning manager Brian Glesson said the application had been with council officers since April and most concerns had been "flushed out" during that time. He said the distance between the new and old homes were "broadly" satisfactory.

He also commented: "The revised scheme is considered by officers acceptable in terms of its residential amenity of the surrounding neighbouring properties."

Almondsbury-based David Wilson Homes will begin work on the site at a later date. The firm will have to adhere to a condition ensuring what the council believe to be a Second World War air raid shelter on the site is not tampered with.