Plans for 272 homes in Amble lodged in first of four outline schemes

Persimmon’s reserved matters application for 272 properties on land north-east of Amble Sewage Treatment Works, with one access off Percy Drive, has now been submitted to Northumberland County Council.

It follows outline approval being granted by councillors to Cheviot Holdings in late 2018 and finally being signed off last month.

The development will consist of 173 three-bedroom houses, 71 four-bedroom dwellings, 26 five-bedroom homes and two six-bedroom properties, all in a range of house types. Twenty-six of them (15%) will be affordable.

A design and access statement says: ‘The mix offers a range of units attractive to families and first-time buyers.

‘Differing styles of housing allow for the creation of well-designed street-scenes, which have been provided throughout the development.

‘The amount of development proposed is considered to maintain the suburban feel of the surrounding area and will assist with the more rural to urban transition into the town.’

The document adds: ‘The development will include for trees and garden hedgerows to property boundaries in order to line streets as well as generous public open spaces that provide useable green spaces.’

As agreed at outline stage, alongside the 15% affordable housing, the developer will provide £693,000 for for primary-school provision in Amble and special educational needs provision for children from the development, £187,800 for primary healthcare in Amble, a £230,000 sports facility contribution to be spent within the Amble parish area and a £163,200 contribution to the council’s coastal mitigation service.

The outline scheme was one of three bids for a total of almost 1,000 new homes in the town, which were first approved in consecutive months at the back end of 2017.

All three of the applications were then given the go-ahead for the second time by councillors in December 2018.

The proposals returned because the county council took the decision that where planning applications had been approved but the permissions not signed off, they should be reassessed in light of the Government’s updated planning rulebook, published in July that year.

However, council officers still recommended the trio for approval and all three were unanimously backed by the strategic planning committee. The other two are for up to 500 properties on land to the south and south-east of James Calvert Spence College (JCSC), off Acklington Road, and up to 166 homes west of the A1068, to be known as Hauxley View.

A month later, in January last year, the same thing happened with outline plans for up to 185 homes on land west of Gloster Meadows and south-east of New Hall Farm, which had first been given the green light in July 2018.

In terms of these other schemes, final decision notices have yet to be issued for the Acklington Road and Hauxley View proposals, while a reserved matters application is yet to be submitted for the New Hall Farm bid, which received final sign-off in September.