Bovis has been given permission to change the Charlton Hayes masterplan, so that it can build wholly-residential properties on a small part of the development originally foreseen for ‘mixed use’.
Conditions attached to the outline planning permission (granted in 2008) for the 2,200 home development require a total of 60,000 sqm of employment space to be created but the housebuilder says that there has been very little demand for employment premises, due to the current economic climate.
In a decision announced in December, South Gloucestershire Council has allowed two blocks that were foreseen for ‘mixed use’, i.e. residential and employment, to be re-designated ‘residential only’.
The two blocks lie either side of ‘The Boulevard’, the still-under-construction road that links Highwood Road with the Hayes Way/Gloucester Road junction.
A report written by officers of the Council stated:
“The proposed change of the Mixed Use areas 3 and 4 from employment to residential represents approximately 8% of the total employment allocation [in the whole Charlton Hayes development]. It does not mean, however, that this floorspace would be lost, since the employment parcels and the other mixed use areas in Phase 1 and other phases are capable of accommodating this amount of employment floorspace.”
The report adds that allowing the alteration “would result in more housing built out on this important strategic site, which contributes significantly to the Council’s five-year housing supply.”
In related news, Patchway Town Council has revealed that Bovis has agreed to lay out and maintain a temporary playing field/children’s play area on the site earmarked for the new Charlton Hayes primary school and that a new community development worker is to be appointed for the area, paid for by developers and housing associations.
At a meeting of the Town Council in October last year, Chair Cllr Chris Mills explained that the Charlton Hayes developers are obliged to prepare land for the new primary school once 750 properties have been sold, which he estimated might not be until 2015. A realistic date for the opening of the new school would therefore be 2017, he added.
According to Cllr Mills, the new school will be an academy or ‘free school’, i.e. funded from central Government rather than the local education authority. This is because South Gloucestershire Council is no longer permitted to build its own schools, he said.
Photo: Site of the proposed primary school at Charlton Hayes.
Related links:
- Charlton Hayes (The Journal)
- Cribbs/Patchway New Neighbourhood (The Journal)
More Houses!!!!!Do we really need that many
WHY AM I NOT SURPRISED. WHAT ABOUT THE INFRASTRUCTURE FOR THE EXTRA HOUSES. WHERE ARE THE NEW RESIDENTS GOING TO WORK.
PERHAPS MORE ENERGY COULD BE PUT INTO ENCOURAGING EMPLOYERS TO INVEST TO THIS AREA. WE NEED MANUFACTURING NOT JUST SHOPS. OR IS IT EASIER TO ACCOMMODATE BOVIS
WHY BOTHER WITH CONSULTATIONS WHEN SGC SAY ONE THING THEN DO ANOTHER. AS WITH HIGHWOOD ROAD.
How much money have the council made out of this decision? I suspect Bovis put some money there way to secure this!
The last thing we need is more houses as the current infrastructure simply can’t cope! Have the council seen the traffic at rush hour around Bradley stoke and stoke Gifford. The roads simply can’t cope!!
Crazy decision.
@Philip – I was wondering how Bovis had agreed to pay for this too. It’s all right for them, they won’t get stuck in the traffic jams like the rest of us…
Why are SGC not allowed to build new schools? Callicroft School has had an influx of children since Charlton Hayes been opened up and so they have had to add an extra class and change others for this term, which has caused more disruption to a school which has had a trying academic year already…
They should be building the school now, not wait until there is no space at any of the other schools, with the resultant overcrowding. But I suspect that is far too logical for SGC.
Wouldn’t it be better for Bovis to fund a permanent playground rather than this temporary one? But then I suppose that would intefere with their profit margin too much!