West Moor Resident’s Association
A Formal Response To Planning Application 11/01358/FUL
The West Moor Residents Association formally objects to the application from Bellway Homes (11/01358/FUL) to construct 267 houses plus 465 m2 commercial/retail space on the land surrounding White House Farm, West Moor on the following grounds:
This development is being submitted at a time when the Core Development Framework (CDF) is yet to be adopted. The Council should not be determining any significant planning applications in advance of agreeing their Core Strategy for development across the borough over the next 20 years. If piecemeal applications such as this are agreed prior to adoption of the CDF, then the whole principle of a spatial strategy for the borough is undermined.
The land earmarked for development in this application has “safeguarded” status under the borough’s extant development framework. Safeguarded land may only be built on when all other alternative sites in the borough have been investigated and either discarded or built upon. Just because a particular developer happens to own the land does not mean that alternative sites (of which there are many) should not be built upon first, and that the safeguarded status can be ignored.
This development will have significant detrimental impacts on the area’s visual amenity, traffic flows on already congested roads, and – most importantly – on wildlife in and around the site. No amount of mitigation can compensate for the loss of productive farmland and the wealth of wildlife this protected habitat supports.
In this document, we list our specific objections to this application in more detail, but firstly we would like to place this application in context with our proposals for the creation of a Neighbourhood Plan for West Moor, consultation on which has already started, and a community scoping report for this is already underway.
This Planning Application in Context
The Future of West Moor
The West Moor area has, along with much of North Tyneside, experienced incremental residential and commercial development over the past decades and whilst this has substantially grown the built environment and brought economic benefits, there comes a time when a community cannot sustain any more development without completely losing its identity. We feel that time has come. Over the years, West Moor Residents have attempted to play a role shaping the development process with a view to ensuring they enhance the qualities of the area rather than cause detriment to them. Sometimes this has been successful; at other times less so.
During the first half of 2011, the West Moor Residents’ Association (WMRA) carried out a consultation exercise with local residents to ascertain their views on how West Moor should develop in the years to come. Our aim was to give a strong voice to local people and to ensure thatNorth Tyneside Council (NTC)were aware of community views which would help it develop future plans for the area, most notably with regard to the forthcoming new Core Development Framework, which is at Preferred Options stage, but is yet to be sent out for final consultation and adoption.
We see this consultation with the residents of West Moor as being as a positive contribution to the development of future plans for the borough, ensuring the final strategy balances social, community, economic and quality of life factors, and takes account of the impact of these on local communities such as West Moor.
Our consultation process, which is still underway, has produced the following Vision for West Moor from local people. It should be noted that this is just the start of what we hope will become a formal Neighbourhood Plan for the area.
What do you value about living in West Moor?
Residents felt that they valued the strong community spirit in West Moor. They said that having friendly, supportive neighbours, a good community centre, and the fact that many of the residents have known each other a long time, was very important to them.
The unique identity of West Moor was also important. Respondents feel that if one livesin West Moor one is living in a proper village, with its own post office, shops and pubs and that it is different to, and distinct from surrounding areas.In particular, residents liked:
Community spirit
People know one another
Closeness to countryside and woods, rural feel and nice places to walk
Supportive neighbours
Unique identity
Like living in a village with its own shops and pub
What concerns you about living in West Moor?
The strongest response here was the feeling of over-development, urban sprawl and the build-up of traffic. The effect of building Quorum and Balliol business parks in close proximity to residential homes has had a negative impact on West Moor residents. People feel that they are being over whelmed by development, noise, pollution and traffic. They feel that their rural village identity is being lost and that its beautiful green open space is under threat – this is particularly important as one of the things that distinguishes West Moor from many other areas is immediate access to unspoilt open countryside. In particular, residents were concerned with:
Ever increasing development proposals, encroaching on the village and eroding its semi-rural nature
Build-up of traffic congestion
Road safety
Increase of office and industrial development
Loss of green space
Loss of West Moor identity to urban sprawl
What should West Moor be like in the future?
The strongest responses here were to keep and preserve what is left. There is a feeling that over the last 20 years, the village has lost a significant amount of the countryside that used to surround it, and that future generations should be able to enjoy what we have left. Comments from residents on this point included the following statements:
West Moor individuality should be kept as it is
Preserve open spaces from urban sprawl
Keep village feel and community spirit
West Moor residents to have greater ownership of the area
Changes to be done thoughtfully by approval of community
Left as it is
A place for people to feel safe and for children to grow up in
Enhance the wildlife and green spaces, build a wildlife park
Other comments
People feel that developers and planners have not adequately consulted local people in the creation of the CDF or in the development of this specific planning application. They feel that development has been imposed upon them and that the things they treasure most about living in West Moor are inexorably being taken from them.
The local perception is that there is now very little open space left in West Moor, as compared to 20 years ago, and that residents want to preserve what is left. This perception is borne out by aerial photos of the village taken over the last 50 years. West Moor villagers wish to have these remaining open spaces secured and protected from future development plans. They feel that industrial land in and around Killingworth would be better used for futurehousing development rather than the current proposals, both in the CDF and this specific planning application, to build on greenfield sites such as Whitehouse Farm.
Conclusion
WMRA’s position regarding future development is that that there should be no further agreements or permission granted for development of any kind in West Moor until the community and NTC have the opportunity to work in partnership to create a long-term, strategic and formal Neighbourhood Plan for the village, and we enclose a Petition to this effect with nearly 900 signatures.
For the avoidance of doubt, WMRA and the residents of the village are not opposed to development per se, but any further development in West Moor must balance perceived development needs with the area’s existing environmental, social, community, economic and quality of life factors.
A History of Planning Applications for This Site
To the best of our knowledge, the history of planning applications by Bellway, their predecessors and others for development of this land is as follows:
1964 Application by Trustees of Killingworth Estate (Maughan and Hall) [K63/72] - Refused
“To allow the proposal would result in an unsatisfactory pattern of sprawling residential development on land which is prominently situated between Gosforth Park and the existing community at West Moor.”
“The proposed development would therefore be contrary to and detrimental to the Local Planning Authority’s policy of preserving the open character of this area in association with the Green Belt.”
Public Inquiry 11/3/1964 – Refusal decision upheld, with Ministerial agreement to the Inspector’s conclusion which stated that:
“……the remaining open country around the Killingworth Township should be preserved. Housing development on the appeal site would intrude unnecessarily into this open land, particularly as other undeveloped land allocated for residential use was available in the area”
1973 Application by G.E. Stephenson (Architect) on behalf of John T. Bell and Sons Limited [K73/302] - Refused
“The proposal is to develop land shown uncoloured on the approved North Tyneside Town Map and to allow the proposed development would result in an undesirable extension of residential development on to land prominently situated between Gosforth Park and Killingworth Township.”
“The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to the County Council’s policy of preserving the open character of this area.”
1973 Application by G.E. Stephenson (Architect) on behalf of John T. Bell and Sons Limited [K73/359] - Refused
“The proposal is to develop land shown uncoloured on the approved North Tyneside Town Map and to allow the proposed development would result in an undesirable extension of residential development on to land prominently situated between Gosforth Park and Killingworth Township.”
“The proposed development would, therefore, be contrary to the County Council’s policy of preserving the open character of this area.”
1974 Application by G.E. Stephenson (Architect) on behalf of John T Bell and Sons Limited [NT/931/74 CM] - Refused
“The proposed development is therefore undesirable in that it would constitute a substantial departure from the Local Planning Authority’s approved policies for the area, which aim to preserve the open character of the area.”
1974 Application by Ingledew Mark Pybus on behalf of John T Bell & Sons Limited [NT/932/74 CM] – Refused
As above
1981 Outline Application by Bellway (Builders) Ltd [NT/641/81 DM] – Refused
Details not known
1983 Application by Bellway (North East) Ltd [NT/2063/83 DM] – Refused
It would involve development outside the existing built-up area
2005 Application by Mr Ruffles, Whitehouse Farm to build one house – Refused
For the grounds for this decision, see below
West Moor Residents Association Specific Objections to the Bellway Whitehouse Farm Planning Application
We are not experts in the various elements of the Bellway application, but we are experts about West Moor and we live and work in the real world. Our comments here are drawn from our collective experience and knowledge, and supported by advice from relevant expert organisations including the Northumberland Natural History Society, Northumberland Wildlife Trust, and Planning Aid.
Current Land Use and Designation
Whitehouse Farm is a significant recreational and environmental resource for the communities of West Moor, Killingworth, Burradon and Camperdown as well as a substantial agricultural asset for the borough. It is used by a wide range of people for, amongst other activities, rambling, cycling, horse-riding, playing, bird-watching, jogging, dog-walking and photography.
It is one of the last pieces of real countryside in an increasingly urban borough – and it is the last piece of substantial countryside in this part of North Tyneside.
In terms of NTC’s current Unitary Development Plan (UDP) the land is designated as ‘Safeguarded Land’. Page 53 of the current UDP, which is still applicable to all applications in the borough until the adoption of a new Core Development Framework defines this status as follows:
E21: Between the green belt and the urban Area an area of safeguarded land is defined which will be maintained in its open state for at least the plan period.
E21/1: development within the area defined asSafeguarded land will not be permitted
Unless
(i) It preserves the open nature of the areaespecially where this forms important open breaks between or within built up areas, and
(ii) It does not cause significant visual intrusion, and
(iii) It does not adversely affect access for recreation, and
(iv) It will not adversely affect importantlandscape features, and
(v) It will not cause significant harm toagricultural or forestry operations,and
(vi) No alternative site is reasonably available.
The emphasis is ours, but note that clauses i to vi are not “or” clauses – they are “and” clauses. Development of safeguarded land must meet all these clauses: we believe this current application (and indeed any application for development on this land) will breach all of these clauses.
Our case is that for each of the points highlighted above there is sufficient harm and detriment to be caused by this development as to render its approval in flat contradiction to NTC’s UDP commitments. We reiterate that until, or unless, the proposed Core Development Framework is adopted by North Tyneside Council, the current UDP stands, and it provides the development framework which must be applied to any consideration of this or any other application for the White House Farm site.
Looking at each of the above clauses in more detail, our objections to the current Bellway planning application are as follows:
i. The Open Nature of the Area
By virtue of its status as a piece of countryside, which has been farmed for generations and which is the last remaining part of the Moor for which the village was named, the open nature of this land is a core feature of the area. Any development on it will destroy this essential feature, no matter what mitigation is proposed.
This viewpoint has been supported by successive Planning Inspectors at appeal over the years. The most recent of these was an appeal by one of the householders of White House Farm itself against NTC’s refusal to grant planning permission for one house on this site in 2005, where the Planning Inspector (in upholding the refusal) said “The proposed development would be conspicuous within this flat, open landscape and the consolidation of this small, isolated group of dwellings at the expense of the open character would be all too obvious.”
He also said “This expanse of open land performs several important functions. It brings an element of the countryside into the built-up area and provides an important physical and visual separation of Killingworth to the east and the settlements of Gosforth and Wide Open to the west.”
An estate of 267 houses covering the entire site (notwithstanding some ‘breaks’ within it) will remove both the open aspect and the critical break between the urban areas surrounding it.
ii. Significant Visual Intrusion
Bellway states in its current planning application: “Having carefully assessed the potential landscape and visual effects throughout the study area, it is considered on balance that the proposed housing development at Whitehouse Farm would have significant landscape and visual effects beyond the areas immediately on or adjacent to the site. Given the commitment to protect and enhance the majority of existing trees and hedgerows and carry out appropriate peripheral and internal landscape treatment to mitigate the effects of the development the proposal is considered to be generally acceptable in terms of landscape and visual effects. “
We have to disagree: this site has always been open land that connects people to the surrounding countryside, and has been used by West Moor villagers for recreational purposes for over 50 years.
A development of 267 houses, including three-storey town houses, will have a major visual impact.From all sides the development will destroy open views of countryside. Regardless of the claims for tree-planting, grey roofs and so on, it will inevitably be a housing development that will irrevocably change the nature of the area from rural to urban. The planning application submitted in July contains no photomontages of the development’s visual impact from the Council’s required viewpoints. This is particularly important as it seems likely from Bellway’s Environmental Statement Technical Appendices (Vol 2), that the first stage of the development on the southwestern field is likely to be elevated to reduce potential flooding issues associated with low-lying ground and the nature of the underlying soil.
In North Tyneside’s own Recommendation Report, dated 13.06.11, and thus sent to Bellway and Signet Planners only 18 days before they submitted the planning application, the comment on this development from North Tyneside’s Landscape Officer is “The proposal represents a large-scale intervention and will fundamentally change or result in the loss of a semi-rural landscape” (page 4)