Lancaster refuses Oakmere’s Morecambe homes
Despite a recommendation to approve from the city council’s planning officers, the committee decided to reject the 129-home scheme.
Deferred in April while councillors sought reassurances over the project’s impact on local roads, Oakmere Homes returned to Lancaster City Council’s planning committee yesterday in the hopes of securing outline approval for the development.
However, members voted to reject the application by eight votes to six, ignoring officers’ claims that the harm of the Fulwood Drive scheme was outweighed by its potential benefits.
If the project had been approved, 27% of the 129 homes would have been made available on affordable tenures.
A total of 157 objections were received. They voiced concerns over flood risk, highways impact, and noise from the nearby railway line.
The site is designated as key urban landscape and open countryside in Lancaster City Council’s local plan. Prior to the plan’s adoption in 2020, the site had been allocated as Green Belt.
To find out more about the plans, search for application number 21/01341/OUT on Lancaster City Council’s planning portal.
At the same meeting, the planning committee approved Barnfield Contractors’ plans for 90,000 sq ft of industrial space across six units off Leapers Wood Road in Carnforth.
The scheme is to be constructed on a 7.4-acre site off Junction 35 of the M6, next to the recently completed Porsche Centre.
The units will range in size from 6,400 sq ft to 25,000 sq ft.
To find out more about the plans, search for application number 22/01328/REM on Lancaster City Council’s planning portal.
More work for the Planning Inspectorate, consultants and KC’s in an area unable to identify any significant housing land supply.
By B Wilder
Time for a root and branch overhaul of the Planning system – how can Committees made up of lay-people continue to ignore the advice of paid experts – The Planning Officers – simply ludicrous. No doubt now another appeal at the Tax-Payers expense whilst those awaiting affordable homes continue to wait and the Local Authority is denied the receipts from 129 Council Tax paying households.
By David Sleath
Until planning is taken away from local councils the country is doomed . What a joke
By Ian hall