Plans set for decision that could see Northumberland village grow with 68 new homes

The proposed site of 70 new homes off Togston Road.

Persimmon’s application for 68 homes on land north-east of Guyzance Avenue, off Togston Road, North Broomhill, is recommended for approval at a meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Council on Thursday, October 17.

The scheme, then for 70 properties, was first submitted last summer, but has since been amended and would feature nine two-bedroom homes, 48 three-bedroom dwellings and 11 four-bedroom houses.

The proposals have sparked 11 objections from residents on a range of issues, while Togston Parish Council also raised concerns, highlighting the lack of bungalows, flooding, extra traffic and additional pressure on the village school and doctors’ surgery.

Looking back towards the village with the proposed access in the foreground and the recent development of North End Close on the right.

But planning officer James Bellis concludes that Togston ‘is an acceptable location for new housing development in principle’.

He adds: ‘The proposal is not considered to be located in the open countryside (based on the provisions of the existing adopted development plan), nor would the proposal have a negative impact on landscape or landscape character.’

However, Mr Bellis notes that the proposal would be outside the settlement boundary identified in the emerging Northumberland Local Plan – for which the examination hearings started last week – and would therefore be considered as open countryside, but ‘this should not be given full weight at this time’.

Approval would be subject to the completion of a section 106 legal agreement to secure £261,000 for the already over-subscribed Broomhill First School and special educational needs, £46,200 to support an expansion of Broomhill Health Centre and a £40,800 ecology contribution for the council’s coastal mitigation scheme.

In terms of affordable housing, six of the homes would be for sale at discount market value and another six for affordable rent (equivalent to 17% of the site in total).

This latest proposal would continue the expansion of the village eastwards following the development of 31 homes, 26 of which were affordable, on the northern side of Togston Road, known as North End Close.