Councillor feels Gosberton housing plan was 'done deal'

A councillor believes planners were voting on a ‘done deal’ when presented with an application to build 20 more homes in a village.

South Holland District Council’s planning committee passed plans to increase the amount of properties on land adjacent to Silverdene in Gosberton from 18 to 20 on Thursday.

However, Coun Simon Walsh says even if the committee had ‘kicked out’ the application for 20 homes, they still would have seen 18 go up, as agreed in outline planning in 2019.

Speaking after the meeting, he said: “This has gone on over a number of years and it was a fait accompli really.

“We were told that they had got the planning for the 18 and would build them regardless, or we could adapt to 20.

“We weren’t going to stop it getting built - it felt as thought it was a done deal.”

The plans for the greenfield site off Boston Road, submitted by RTW Construction and Development, had earmarked 15 homes for the open market and five affordable.

There had been opposition to the application in the council chamber, however members of the public were unable to see this as the live broadcast of the meeting failed.

Residents had also lodged concerns over the plans, with Sir John Hayes objecting to the application too.

In a statement submitted prior to the meeting he said: “More needs to be done to mitigate the impact of this development will have on its neighbours.

“Clearly, this application is not an improvement.

Sir John also pointed out that the site is outside of the settlement boundary for the village and added: “The housing need identified in the local plan for Gosberton has long been met, so there is no reason to increase the number of dwellings.”

Speaking after the meeting, John Clark, chairman of Gosberton Parish Council, said work had already started on the site.

He said: “It’s been rough ground for a long time but it was full of trees and wildlife and they’ve trashed the lot.”

Coun Clark also questioned why Section 106 money for education wouldn’t stay in the village, and felt that the village ‘hadn’t been considered at all’.

Lincolnshire County Council’s education department had requested a financial contribution of £76,509 towards additional secondary places at Kirton Thomas Middlecott Academy, while the NHS asked for £13,200 towards an ‘expansion in capacity’.

Coun Clark said: “When it comes to the education funding, fair enough the council have asked for it to go to Kirton, but Gosberton has a school down the road.

“It feels that they haven’t considered the village at all.

“The additional traffic isn’t going to make it any easier - we’ve already seen this year what can happen with roads being closed to put utilities on. it’s really frustrating.”

Coun Simon Walsh agrees that Gosberton’s roads will ‘only get busier’ as a result of building in the village.

He added: “Highways never see a problem with anything unless someone has died on a road. In my view, it’s too late once someone has died.

“As more estates start going up, it’s only going to get busier on the roads and at some point something will happen.

“It’s just going to keep getting busier and busier.”

Councillors moved the officers’ recommendation to grant permission subject to the applicant entering into a Section 106 agreement to secure 25% of affordable housing on site and financial contributions.