Fylde gives go-ahead for 49 Weeton homes

Northern Trust has secured outline consent for development on a greenfield site, while the planning committee deferred a decision on a residential to church conversion.

Approval had been recommended for the Northern Trust application, with the borough’s lack of a five-year supply of housing land a critical factor.

The site forms part of a larger agricultural field, east of Church Road. Northern Trust is working with MCK Associates on the project.

Although detailed plans have not been submitted yet, the site will front Church Road as the only road frontage available. The exact number of homes, layout and design will be determined at reserved matters stage.

The site is located in the countryside as designated in the Fylde local plan, and the application would not meet any of the forms of development supported by that policy, meaning ordinarily it would be in conflict.

However, the supply position means that the ‘tilted balance’ is engaged, and although local residents have raised concerns over issues such as highways, drainage and impact on the area’s character – and Weeton-with-Preese Parish Council is an objector – officers believe that “significant and demonstrable harm” will not be caused.

With the committee in broad agreement, authority is thus delegated to the director of planning to approve, on the basis of 30% affordable homes being secured and Section 106 contributions, chiefly an educational contribution suggested at £245,000.

Also approved subject to an agreement over BNG was a five-court indoor padel centre, to be built new on a vacant plot within the Whitehills Industrial Estate in Westby-with-Plumptons.

Deferment however was the verdict for a plan to turn a home in Clifton Drive North, Lytham St Annes into a place of worship for the Spiritualist Society, with more information requested around traffic.

Documents for the Northern Trust scheme can be viewed on Fylde Council’s planning portal, reference 26/0013.