Hat-trick of housing bids recommended for refusal

Three bids for new homes in north Northumberland villages are being recommended for refusal.
Bamburgh, where a housing proposal is recommended for refusal.Bamburgh, where a housing proposal is recommended for refusal.
Bamburgh, where a housing proposal is recommended for refusal.

Planning officers suggest that councillors should reject the schemes, in Bamburgh, Embleton and Milfield, at Thursday’s meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Council.

The Bamburgh application is the first to go to committee since the North Northumberland Coast Neighbourhood Plan passed referendum last month.

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In line with the key policy in that plan which aims to limit second/holiday homes, the proposal is for 10 principal occupancy dwellings, ranging from two to four-bedroom, on land east of The Friars, Radcliffe Road.

However, according to the planning officer’s report, it falls foul of other policies as it ‘proposes an inappropriate form of development outside of the settlement boundary’ and ‘would not represent appropriate development in the open countryside’.

The Embleton proposal, for seven detached homes on land west of Station Road, has sparked 51 objections from neighbours as well as concerns from the parish council and neighbourhood plan steering group.

The planning officer concludes that the development would represent ‘an incursion into the open countryside’ and ‘impact upon open views over the surrounding countryside which are afforded from the site’.

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It also ‘fails to protect and enhance the distinctive landscape character of Embleton and the wider former district of Alnwick’.

At Milfield, the retrospective demolition of outbuildings and the construction of three terraced houses, on land to the south of the Red Lion pub, is also earmarked for refusal.

The parish council said it would welcome the redevelopment of this derelict site, but objects to this application, comprising two, two-bedroom homes and one, three-bedroom property.

The planning officer warns that it would result in the total loss of a non-designated heritage asset (outbuilding) and cause harm to the setting of the grade II-listed Red Lion.

‘The proposal would have a detrimental impact upon neighbouring amenity in terms of loss of privacy and overbearing impact,’ the report adds.

Ben O'Connell, Local Democracy Reporting Service