Planning

Moor Lane site February 2023. 

The first full plans  were submitted by  to NKDC and available for public scrutiny public in November 2022. These plans delivered some of the community benefits promised to the community in 2017. However, following the publication of the these plans a survey by the Parish Council showed that 68% of the community were dissatisfied with the level of benefits when compared to the outline plan of 2017.  The Parish Council responded on the portal by submitting the following responses:

Response to Planning Justification

Response to community Involvement. 

Parish views on planning application 22/1376/FUL. 

Several meetings have now taken place between the PC and the developer. The Developer has agreed to amend the plans to address many of the concerns raised by residents.  The Parish Council in principle now support the application dependent on amended plans being submitted for the Moor Lane site and new plans for the increased area. This is subject to binding agreements and all other issues being resolved satisfactory by all parties involved in the planning.  

We are expecting the draft legal documents, the amended plans, and the new plans to be submitted by the end of February. Our final position decision will depend upon these documents. 

Update on the development of the former produce world site (Response sent to the developer 28.09.2021)

Apologies for the delay in replying.  I do understand your frustrations but I am hoping that you can understand the time that has been required to obtain advice and ensure that our response is appropriate and agreed by the Parish Council.

The following response was finalised this morning, just before your recent email, and ready to send to you today:

The Parish Council discussed the amendment to the sketch plans you recently sent at the meeting on Monday 13th September and would wish to make the following comments:

In your email you offer the option of hard and soft landscaping the entire area in front of the school and church. As we pointed out to you at the meeting this area is owned by Highways and therefore sits outside our jurisdiction. Also, the area is only ever mentioned by the community in terms of parking and that will be alleviated by the provision on the new development.

We agree regarding the enhancement of the village.  The parish council, working with you, and based upon the views of the community, believe we can achieve this aim by securing an increase in open public spaces and developing these and our existing public spaces appropriately. We feel this will add value to your development, ensure community cohesion for the future and address issues raised over an extended period by our existing residents.

To enhance the existing public spaces, we would wish to undertake the following projects:

1. Using a professional firm add, and upgrade, the equipment on the Play Area on the High Street.
2. Develop the Playing Field on Station Road to accommodate a football pitch, perimeter walkway and a small nature reserve.
3. Tarmac the village hall car park.
4. Provide support for refurbishment work in church buildings.

We have estimated this to cost approximately £150,000. These facilities together with the new carpark and landscaped pond area would then be available for all the community with the potential of local groups being established to run teams, look after areas and manage resources.

Compared to the agreement signed in 2017 we have lost a substantial number of open spaces promised to the community. Therefore, we were delighted when you offered the western green corridor to the parish council. This would ensure any trees planted or established in the area would be protected. We are finding that trees in private garden are fast disappearing in the village and would expect a similar outcome on the new estate.

In your final plans we would wish you to give an exact number of trees that will be planted and maintained on the privately owned verges. Even though we have concerns with TPOs we would wish to protect these trees with TPOs or some other binding agreement that ensures they have a long-term future.

We also need to see the ransom strip extends to the northern part of the development, from Moor Lane to the footpath, at the end of this estate, to ensure that it has the purpose it is designed for.

We still wish to know the final number of and type of houses you will be building, in terms of how many bedrooms, detached semi-detached, bungalows etc. These we assume will be obvious when you submit more detailed plans, which should also ensure that the ransom strip extends to the northern part of the development in addition to that already outlined in the draft plans.

Of course, we still need to remember that residents have also not seen full, detailed plans and we await their views.

On confirmation of the above we feel we can work together towards signing an acceptable variation on the existing s106 when we are in a position to ensure all commitments are legally binding. 

Update on the development of the former produce world site. July 2021

We are expecting Peter Sowerby to circulate a commentary regarding this site to explain in more detail his plans. We have requested that at the end of his commentary there will be the opportunity for you to comment and email your response to the parish clerk or write to a councillor. We propose that these responses will be collated by the clerk and forwarded to the developer, in addition to being evaluated by the Parish Council. There will also be the opportunity for you to comment when full planning is submitted to NKDC or if significantly modified plans are produced by the developer.

The Parish Council would like to confirm that they will not be giving any formal feedback to the developer or NKDC on the  development until full plans and associated documents are submitted to the NKDC or are more widely available to the community and the Parish Council.. All existing plans and associated commentary have been written by the developer and outline his proposals for this site. We are still seeking to align any new plans with the original S106 which received community support in 2017.  Any significant changes would need the same level of support. We continue to evaluate plans against the original S106 and any substantial deviation that does not benefit the community will not be supported by the Parish Council.

The role of the Parish Council is to represent the community and we will continue to ask for feedback and ensure that our position captures  your views. It has always been our position to inform and update the community when we have received key information regarding this development and we will continue with this approach in the future.

These are the latest plans from Peter Sowerby and the parish council have asked him for a commentary comparing these plans and explaining any difference to the original s106 signed in 2017. By providing this comparison and adding any other information he thinks is relevant we think he will answer many of the questions residents might ask regarding the June 2021 plans.

Plese click here to see the draft proposals

Please click here to see the July flyer for the site

Please click here to see the original outline planning for the site in 2017

Notes from a Small Parish = Swinderby Development.

The monthly meeting was delayed until the 19th of July to allow us to have our first face to face meeting as a council since February last year. It was also an opportunity for the Annual Parish Meeting to take place and the draft minutes for both meetings can be found on our website and noticeboard.  These notes focus on the housing development in Swinderby to try and objectively clarify issues and help you form an opinion on this major change to our parish. We understand that you will receive these notes in the Link Up after the deadline for the consultation period organised by Peter Sowerby Homes but before the deadline for any formal planning application submitted to NKDC. It is important that you provide feedback at both stages and crucially to the final plans when they are submitted to NKDC. 

The Process.

1. The feedback from the consultation period will be evaluated independently by the parish council and Peter Sowerby Homes. In the case of the parish council, we will hopefully have an overall understanding of the consensus within the parish and any areas you wish us to raise with the developer.
2. At the end of the consultation stage the parish council will reserve judgement until the final plans are submitted to NKDC. There are still details that need finalising before any changes can be made to the original deeds. For example, a carpark with less than spaces for 30 cars would probably, in our opinion, not be fit for purpose. We need to see detailed scaled plans before the parish council makes a final judgment.
3. Crucially when the final plans are submitted, we would encourage all of you to express your opinion on the NKDC website or in writing to them. This feedback will provide a clear steer to both your parish council and NKDC. Feedback must be linked to the Local Plan
4. According to the outcome of the above the parish council could agree to a change in the deeds underwriting the 2017 agreement.

The History.

The proposed growth is substantially over and above the percentage increase required within our parish by the Central Lincolnshire Plan. Therefore, any increase must have the support of the community.

Briefly, in 2017 the community agreed that there would be up to 120 houses and 20 units (their word not ours) for the elderly. In return the community would have a car park, the potential for a shop, an increase in community green areas, ecological areas and financial support for local organisations.  These were community issues you raised through extensive consultations that were addressed in the 2017 plans by the community agreeing to accept 140 dwellings.

The proposed increase in 2021 to 152 houses has been achieved by the Developer converting six of the commercial units to housing with home offices and building on an area of land not designated for any purpose in 2017.

The Green Areas.

On the original plan 2017 circulated recently the three areas in dark green, light green and khaki green would become parish community assets. These together with the pond would address the some of the issues raised by the community during the consultations 2015 -17 regarding green spaces and creating diverse habitats. They would also support many policies in the Central Lincolnshire Local Plan. In the proposed plans 2021 a significant proportion of this green space (not the pond, car park or part of the western green corridor) will be owned and managed by Peter Sowerby Homes or become part of the gardens of private houses. There was always going to be a need for changes to the original plan once a developer had purchased the land. But to what extent and would these changes achieve community support? In our opinion the proposed changes do not give Swinderby the equivalent of the green areas we were granted in the 2017 agreement. Even before the purchase of the land any developer would have read the agreement in 2017 and based their plans accordingly.

In summary

The parish council must reflect on the views of the community and act accordingly. It has been a long and lengthy process. It is important that we get it right and yet key questions still remain. For example,

Should we ask for the western green corridor to run the length of the development as agreed in 2017 or accept the footpath between the houses replacing the green corridor at the southern end?

Although accepting that some of the green areas can be used to ensure a more appealing layout for the estate do, we insist on a large green area for community use?

What will happen to the green areas previously promised to the community once they are in private hands?  

We have no doubt that you will generate questions and answers as you come to your decision. All we would ask is for you to make a judgement and ensure that you inform the decision makers, NKDC and the developer.

Central Lincolnshire Local Plan.

Any decisions made by NKDC make should be based upon the policies within this plan. The table below gives the heading for some for some of the relevant policies in the plan

There are 57 policies in the current plan, and the plan is available online or ask a councillor for clarification if need be.

To clarify the Next Steps

1. The consultation stage will provide feedback to the Parish Council and Peter Sowerby Homes as any modifications required prior to the submission of full planning.
2. Full plans are submitted to NKDC.
3. Opportunity for residents to express their opinions to NKDC – the decision makers, with a published deadline for responses.
4. Parish Council will use the feedback given by the community to NKDC to make their opinion known.
5. At this stage they may be a need for legal documents to be signed by the PC.
6. Planners at NKDC make their decision on the full plans.

Geoff Lloyd and Lynne Carter

Thank you to all the residents that have sent in their comments on the recent survey sent out by the developer.  Please keep sending them in.  It is important for us, and for NKDC,  to know residents views on the proposal.

The developer has responded to the survey replies received in the first 2 weeks (see below).  Please note that these are the developer's comments and not any views formed by the Parish Council.  The Parish Council will ensure that it takes resident's views into account prior to making any comments on the application.

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'I think it would be useful if you could publish my following reply to clarify a few points - even though most of them have been repeated many time.

1, The "organic feel" of the design is just a way of describing the flow of the layout, roads and verges, which are generally weaving and curving their way throughout the development, much like the village itself which has very few straight roads and definitely not like the original outline plan which had straight roads, grids of houses and no verges.

2, The plan is to scale, it does not vary and I think this has been misinterpreted as the areas circled have simply been highlighted to show the landscaping better, but it is all to scale, highlights each of the houses and bungalows and includes all the garages and subject to approval and the tree survey to ensure no trees are affected, this is the final layout and design.

3, I called the old building "the old cow shed", because that is what I was told it was called. If there is another name for it that is more widely used, then please let me know and we can rename it.

4, I did not know there was an existing village green - can someone let me know where that is for future reference.

5, Can I point out that I had nothing to do with this site getting planning permission originally or any of the negotiations with the S106 Agreement, I have just bought it since and if I hadn't, then someone else would.  This application is to address the actual detail of the houses and layout to be built not the general principal which has already been set well before my involvement.

6, The shop and adjacent commercial office units will be restricted to exactly that, so there will be no annoying noise from work being carried out if they were workshops for example and I have had no further contact with regards to purchasing the adjacent land.

7, The village voted on the site being developed for houses to replace the factory and this application is to deal with the design in detail, it already has outline approval.

8, There will absolutely be a maximum of 152 houses and the 4 commercial shop/office units.

9, The original outline approval was for 90 x houses, 30 x Affordables, 20 x OAP bungalows, 1500 sqm of commercial (equivalent of 20 houses) and in addition to this is the area that was originally going to be sold to extend the Kisimul School which the village didn't want and would therefore equate to another 20 houses, which totals 180 properties. This is what the village has already accepted, while my final design limits this to 152 properties and 4 commercial units - which represents a significant reduction.

10, All Surface and foul drainage will be installed as required and agreed with the authorities. The surface water will certainly be stored in large attenuation tanks underground and released into the surrounding ditches in a controlled and restricted manner and Severn Trent know about the foul problems and the income they receive from this development should enable them to deal with the issue, which I believe has been caused when they redirected Morton?

11, Happy to reply to any further questions, but it is important that a number of facts and points are made clear as we go along and hope the above helps.

Peter Sowerby'