Planning Application

PLEASE READ BUILD – A BETTER BEMBRIDGE OBJECTION – PDF

Say NO to this inappropriate development which brings NO benefit to the village and ignores the democratically expressed wishes of the village community expressed in the Bembridge Neighbourhood Development Plan.

Your comments and objections must relate to land use considerations, traffic and environmental matters.  

Please respond with your comments to the Isle of Wight Council Planning Office by 5pm on 12th January 2022. There are three ways to do this:

  • Email your comments with the subject reference 21/01884/FUL| Proposed Development of 57 Dwellings in Bembridge to: development@iow.gov.uk

  • Post your comments in a letter to the Council, again with subject reference: 21 / 01884 / FUL | Proposed Development of 57 Dwellings in Bembridge to:

Isle of Wight Council Planning Services, Seaclose Offices, Fairlee Road, Newport, Isle of Wight, PO30 2QS 

BACKGROUND / OVERVIEW  

A developer wants to build 57 houses in the greenfield at the edge of the village  adjacent to Steyne Road and Hillway Road in addition to the 9 houses that have already been granted permission. The village is already overbuilt and under resourced. The proposed development does not meet any identified need for the village. It will not produce affordable houses for local families. Green space on the edge of the village will disappear forever, fundamentally changing the character of Bembridge. It will adversely effect all residents of Bembridge by dramatically increasing traffic and straining already over stretched resources.

REASONS TO OBJECT 

Ignores Bembridge Neighbourhood Development Plan.  The Isle of Wight Council and the developer are ignoring the legally binding Bembridge Neighbourhood Development Plan (BNDP).  The BNDP recognises that some development is inevitable but that it should be small scale, tailored to identified needs and ideally on existing sites within the village NOT greenfield.

Traffic. This is already a nightmare in winter and is significantly worse in the summer. An additional 57 houses with 6 vehicle movements per day will generate 342 extra daily car movements. The roads are narrow. There are no pavements or street lights around the development. There is no parking. This is not just an inconvenience it could be fatal if it prevents access/egress by emergency vehicles. The site entrances will be onto already overcrowded Steyne Road and Hillway Road. The additional load will inevitably cause more accidents at the poorly designed Steyne Cross mini roundabout.  

Infrastructure.   Our village continues to grow, yet we are suffering from massive underinvestment in infrastructure and services – with few local employment opportunities and no secondary school, no GP surgery, no bank, no petrol station. Our community therefore needs to drive beyond village boundaries to access these services. In addition there are no new car parking facilities, limited public transport and no local fire brigade. 

Flooding.  The proposed site floods routinely and the surface water run off regularly overwhelms the capacity of the drainage and sewage system in Steyne Road. This floods local properties and businesses and causes sewage to back up into properties and to be discharged onto our premier bathing beaches at Lane End, St Helens and Whitecliff Bay almost every time it rains heavily. The Beachbuoy website documents continual dumping of waste into our waters: https://www.southernwater.co.uk/water-for-life/our-bathing-waters/beachbuoy

Need.  There is NO identified local need for 57 expensive new homes.  The village population is increasingly elderly and we need to attract and retain young families.  There IS a need for a small number of genuinely affordable homes for local families.  The proposed development will not provide this. On the proposed development the three bedroom “affordable” houses have been valued at £450,000 – £465.000. The smaller two bedroom “affordable” houses at £400.000 – £435.000. Even with the 80% discount of market value applied to these “affordable” homes these houses are well out of the reach of our young and first-time buyers especially when you factor in Bembridge council tax and ever increasing utility bills. In short the ruse of offering “affordable” homes to legitimise a development is not fit for purpose in a village as expensive as Bembridge where the average price of a house is £407, 322 (Zoopla August 2021). *Prices above provided by local property valuer with current experience and understanding of the east wight and Bembridge specific market. 

Environmental Impact. The proposed site contains up to 18 fine or superb oak trees and 2 veteran oak trees some of which are over 200 years old.  These oak trees all have individual and area TPO’s.  The developer also proposes the near complete removal of 250m of hedgerow.  It is a large chunk of habitat and provides a connecting strip of cover within the overall site. Its complete removal is a significant loss, both in terms of landscape integrity and ecological function.

INDEPTH ANALYSIS PDF’s

Environmental Impact

Response To Planning Permission Application 

There is now an active planning permission application submitted to the IOW Council for the construction of 57 dwellings on greenfield land off Hillway Road and Steyne Road, with provisions for constructing 66 homes developed by the Thornycroft Family, together with Thornwood Developments and BCM. This application became effective on 23rd November (notwithstanding a weekly press list publication date of 17th December), with comments due into the IOW Council Planning Office by 5pm on 12th January 2022

Members of our Build a Better Bembridge Ltd working committee have been meeting to consider responses to this application. The scale of this proposed application is excessive, disproportionate, will overwhelm Bembridge’s shrinking public services and does not meet the tests of ‘sustainability’ and ‘community need’ as set out in the Bembridge Parish Council’s Neighbourhood Plan – and it appears the IOW Council is seeking to undermine our parish council’s statutory governance by unilaterally ‘upgrading’ our village’s “Rural Service Centre”’ status to a “Secondary Settlement”, including extending the community boundary (SHLAA), all without any community consultation. The planning application can be found on the following link (54 documents): https://bit.ly/3q5WaY4. For those interested in understanding the submission, there are four key documents to consider: (1) Design & Access and Planning Statement, (2) Transport Assessment, (3) Ecological Impact Assessment and (4) Flood Risk Assessment and Drainage Strategy. 

We are taking expert planning and technical advice as well as advice from the Bembridge Parish Council and Cllr Joe Robertson. Our committee aims to post an analysis of the submission on or before 31st December 2021 in order to help residents understand the issues so that they can make their individual/family representations, giving Bembridge residents at least 12 days to review and submit their written views on or before 12th January. It is crucially important that as many interested residents as possible respond and oppose this planning application. We also note that the Bembridge Parish Council is meeting on 5th January, with community members welcome to attend. Members of Build a Better Bembridge will be in attendance to advise on the issues and help with representations.  

In the meantime, please feel free to contact any member of the Build a Better Bembridge working committee: Angus MacLeod, Ben Smith, Ben Wood, Bruce & Amanda Huber, Catherine Bachelor, Gerry Price, Joanna Norman, Nick & Dot Rootes, Paul & Sara Smith or Robin Ebsworth.

Or you may wish to contact BBB direct on info@buildabetterbembridge.co.uk or the Bembridge Parish Council (Chair: Liz White, liz.white@bembridgepc.org.uk) or Councillor Joe Robertson (joe.robertson@iow.gov.uk).