Residents of a village just outside Canterbury have expressed ‘deep concern’ after losing a long-running fight to prevent developers building on the site of a former orchard designated as countryside.
Fourteen years after plans were first put forward to construct seven new homes on Pear Meadow Orchard in Wickhambreaux, Kent, creating what locals branded a ‘millionaires’ enclave’, the twice-refused scheme has belatedly been granted approval.
Ana Thomson, the founder of an action group that has spent five years battling proposals out forward by Rogate Properties, a Canterbury-based developer, said planners had failed to heed local objections.
‘It was opposed by the people of the village and parish council, and was previously rejected by Canterbury City Council and then the Planning Inspectorate,’ said Thomson.
‘Pear Orchard is designated as countryside which is not for development in the current draft local plan, but the plan hasn’t been formally adopted yet, so it only got through on a temporary loophole.
‘The people of the village have been denied their say and feel that the system has failed them.’
Christine McVie, the late Fleetwood Mac singer and keyboardist, is the most notable of several celebrity residents who have lived in Wickhambreaux down the years.
Sir Michael Morpurgo, the British writer whose novels include War Horse, once taught at a primary school in the village, and it was also the home of Nick Bateman, who came to prominence as a contestant on the first series of Big Brother, earning the moniker ‘Nasty Nick’.
Rogate Properties have prepared a drawing showing what the proposed new development of seven houses would like
Wickhambreaux has been a home to several celebrity residents down the years, from the late Fleetwood Mac singer and keyboardist Christine McVie to the author Sir Michael Morpurgo
The former pear orchard that Rogate Properties will build on is a self-contained field surrounded by trees and hedging
John Showler, the planning director at Rogate Properties, downplayed objections to the scheme, arguing that the site is both suitable and sustainable.
He also pointed out that neither the city council nor the planning inspector adjudged the location of the scheme to be grounds for refusal.
Showler has previously defended the plans as progressive, highlighting the benefits the scheme will bring and pointing out that two of the seven new homes would replace existing ones.
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‘The properties are just detached family homes which will help support village amenities, in particular the primary school that needs a flow of new pupils to survive,’ Showler told Kent Online in 2019.
‘They are not homes for millionaires. All villages need new blood to continue to thrive.
‘Is it not just the old guard pulling up the drawbridge and being against change – no matter how modest?’
Lack of affordable housing was previously deemed a sticking point by the city council, but a contribution payment by Rogate has addressed that concern. Development is expected to begin next year.
The Wickhambreaux Action Group has previously expressed fears that, if approved, the proposals could pave the way for similar schemes. It is now ‘reviewing its options’.
The group has also raised concerns about access to the site, which would increase traffic along the List, a very narrow lane where schoolchildren walk.
But while a transport consultant commissioned by local objectors highlighted ‘serious public traffic safety concerns’, Kent County Council Highways did not oppose the application.
The city council said other previous concerns, including a lack of ecology impact information and insufficient community infrastructure contributions, have now been addressed.