Developer’s plans for early move in of Rectory Farm homes quashed over highway safety

Councillors have refused a developer’s attempts to move people into its new homes before improving a nearby junction.

Vistry East Anglia wanted to move residents into new homes on the first phase of its 400-house Rectory Farm development before planned improvements to the nearby Linden/Jelson eastern junction finished in late 2025.

However, objections from Lincolnshire County Council, Barrowby Parish Council, and National Highways highlighted concerns about highway safety and potential congestion.

They highlighted risks including potential queues and safety hazards.

At a meeting of South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee today (Thursday, May 18), councillors were told the junction was already operating at more than 200% capacity and that there were fears of “severe delays and queuing”.

Despite Vistry's assurance of safety, officials recommended rejecting the proposal due to its perceived negative impact on highways safety and capacity.

“It is the officers' assessment that the proposed variation would have an unacceptable impact on Highway Safety,” said planning officer Adam Murray.

Coun Mark Whittington (Con) said no residents he had spoken to were in favour of the application.

“That junction is always crowded and packed,” he said.

“I have seen drivers taking dangerous risks to get across because they become frustrated waiting.”

“I have seen them doing some pretty crazy things to try and get across… it’s unreasonable for us to wait until 150 of those are occupied.”

A statement from CounGareth Knight (Con) said residents were “increasingly tired” of developers “rolling back on conditions”.

Rebecca Smith, speaking on behalf of the developer Vistry, tried to reassure members that there was “no intention to delay the delivery of the junction works”.

She said work was going on with National Highways and County Council but said that technical and legal requirements and investigations were a “lengthy process despite efforts to streamline it”.

“We've committed to the work programme we've already started. We just want to get it finished and then also be able to deliver the new homes for people to move into.”

She noted some other developments would not be due to go ahead or open until 2026/27.

“The National Highways objection is based on an extreme worst-case scenario that's unlikely to materialise in the interim period,” she said.

“When assessing the realistic interim scenario, the trips associated with an additional 150 dwellings… there is a minimal impact, certainly not a severe impact and not queuing backing onto the A1.”

Councillors agreed with the officer’s recommendation, acknowledging the expertise of the upper tier authorities.

Committee chairman David Bellamy (Con) feared that if they ignored National Highways and LCC’s concerns and there was an accident “the fingers are going to come back towards us for not taking the advice we've been given.”

Coun Helen Crawford (Con) added: “We know how bad the A1 is, we know that traffic is going to increase over the next few years and we might be looking at four to five years before this junction is even completed if we wait.”