Second approval for Manea homes plans
New plans for the redevelopment of Lavender Mill in Manea have once again received planning permission for up to 29 homes.
Messrs K Jordan and M Judd have re-applied for permission to develop the site off Fallow Corner Drove with an updated planning statement which explains issues with demolishing buildings has meant a delay in selling the site for development.
Drawn up by Alison Hutchinson of Hutchinsons Planning and Development Consultants, the statement said: "The application is a re-submission of an earlier planning application which was granted planning permission under Reference F/YR16/0107/O on 11 November 2016.
"The site has been a difficult one to dispose of largely because of the number, size and state of the buildings on the site and the cost of their demolition and clearance. As a consequence, the owners decided to undertake the demolition of the buildings to allow the site to be marketed as a cleared site. However, this course of action has resulted in the need to secure various permissions before the site could be cleared.
"The main issue was to secure the permission of Natural England for the grant of a bat licence for the demolition of the buildings in advance of the reserved matters approval for the housing. That permission was eventually granted in November 2017.
"Mitigation for bats as a result of demolition has been approved and implemented with bat boxes around the periphery of the site."
The new application was approved by Fenland District Council on tuesday (19) and is subject to a raft of conditions. However, the developers will not be making any Section 106 contributions to services or amenities in the village as part of the permission.
A viability study carried out showed that the cost of clearing the site has meant the profit margin would be too low if affordable housing was to be included or if financial contributions were made to education, health or leisure amenities.
However, before the development can commence plans must be submitted showing how the developer is going to widen a stretch of Fallow Corner Drove between the development and Westfield Road.
A detailed scheme showing how the road can be widened to a minimum width of 5.5m must be submitted and the works for this should be completed before the first property is occupied.
Similarly plans need to be approved for a scheme to provide a 1.5m wide footway along the northern side of Fallow Corner Drove, which connects the footpath on the development with the footpath in Westfield Road.
