Church Lane, Awbridge housing development.
Residents of Awbridge will receive a questionnaire about the proposed housing development next to All Saints Church in Church Lane in the ADVA Magazine when it is delivered in the next few days. I hope it's therefore helpful to provide some information about the proposal and why residents are being asked their opinion.
The Parish Council have provided some graphics and further information in the post copied below.
The need to extend All Saints' graveyard and the aspiration to provide parking for the church have been issues for many years. The churchwardens have now worked with the owner of the neighbouring nursery site and a local developer to bring forward a scheme that solves both issues.
The site is currently in what is deemed by the local plan to be countryside and as such development would not be acceptable in normal circumstances. The scheme is therefore being proposed using TVBC Planning Policy, COM 9, which allows community-led development in a countryside location.
This does not mean that the usual planning requirements (heritage, landscape, traffic) are ignored, rather it adds an additional test for the applicants to pass; that being they should demonstrate both community support and that the benefit provided outweighs the 'harm' of building in a countryside location.
The Parish Council considered the applicants' initial proposal at a public meeting in January. Then the proposal was for four houses on the site and views were expressed for and against the scheme from members of the public and parish councillors at the meeting. The Parish Council voted to support the scheme in principle, albeit not unanimously. The new proposal for three detached houses takes into account some of the concern expressed in January that the houses should match the style of property prevalent in Church Lane.
The churchwardens need now to demonstrate they have the support of the community for the scheme and to put this evidence back to the Parish Council for a further opinion. This is why the questionnaire is being included in the ADVA News.
As a Parish Councillor I voted in favour of the scheme at the meeting in January. As your Borough Councillor, I also support the scheme.
For me, the benefit to the village of the enlarged graveyard, which gives certainty to parishioners that they can be buried or interred at All Saints if they wish; the construction of the car park to remove the congestion caused when the church is busy. And the provision of the community garden (where perhaps we can commemorate those parishoners we have lost to Covid-19?) outweigh the harm of the new homes.
There is, for me, a further issue. The current nursery site alongside the Church, is not sustainable. It's too small to be commercially viable. It's also been described as unsightly. Although not currently considered in planning law to be a brownfield site, there are moves to change national planning policy to designate such sites as brownfield. It is entirely possible (and in my view likely) that in the near future the former nursery will become a site where development is considered possible and as a consequence a very different, and less sympathetic, proposal will come forward with no community benefit.
Therefore, it is better in my view that we accept a scheme with community benefit, which has community support, now rather than be forced to allow a much more harmful development at a later date.
Finally, I understand a leaflet has been delivered to some parts of the village asking residents to oppose the scheme. The leaflet makes claims about the Parish Council's involvement with the scheme that are entirely incorrect, both in terms of what has happened to date and how the proposal will be dealt with going forward.
Housing development is always contentious and there are residents of Church Lane, and elsewhere, who I know feel passionately this scheme should not go ahead. I understand their concerns but feel the aspiration of some that there should be no development at all on this site to be dangerously short-sighted.
Whatever your view, if you are a recipient of ADVA News, I hope you will respond to the survey.
If you have any questions about the application do please get in touch and I'll very happily answer them if I can.