Stamford North development to be decided by South Kesteven District Council on December 5
Major plans to build a 1,350-home extension to a town could be given the go-ahead next week.
‘Stamford North’ has been designed by master developer GummerLeathes for 81 hectares of Burghley House Preservation Trust land between Ryhall Road and Little Casterton Road in Stamford.
Running through the housing would be a park, and in the scheme is a primary school, shops, sports and health facilities.
The site is already allocated for development on the South Kesteven Local Plan.
The decision to be taken by South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee on Thursday next week (December 5) is over ‘outline’ planning permission, with the 13 elected members either accepting or rejecting blueprints for the scheme without going into details such as architecture and building materials, or which boxes health and sports facilities might tick for residents.
Council planning officers have compiled a report advising members of the committee based on what consultees have said. National Highways, Lincolnshire County Council’s highways department, Lincolnshire Fire and Rescue, Anglian Water and the Environment Agency have lodged no objections.
One of the main issues under scrutiny, and a reason why Stamford Town Council has objected, is the effect Stamford North could have on the road network.
GummerLeathes proposes a main road running east-west through the development, effectively creating a new link between the A1 near Great Casterton and Ryhall Road on the north-east edge of town.
Lincolnshire County Council, which is responsible for roads, has used its latest ‘Stamford Traffic Model’ to anticipate the effect the development would have on junctions where traffic can build up.
The report concludes: “Modelling indicates that six junctions would operate over capacity with the addition of the development traffic. However, these junctions are also shown to operate over capacity without the development, and therefore it would not be reasonable to obligate the applicant to mitigate issues that are not directly related to the development.
“Similarly, National Highways has accepted that the applicant should not be required to mitigate existing capacity constraints on the A1 junctions.”
Another issue which could be discussed is that Sport England has opposed the development because of its concerns that facilities at Borderville Sports Centre could be lost.
GummerLeathes is in talks with Borderville about turning part of its grass pitches behind the sports centre, and some of the car park, into parkland. This would allow a continuous run of parkland along the east-west line of the development and across Ryhall Road to the River Gwash.
As compensation, GummerLeathes wants to provide Section 106 funding for all-weather pitches and any necessary changing facilities, while parking at Borderville would be reconfigured to compensate the loss of original spaces.
In the report to councillors, the planning application case officer at South Kesteven District Council responded: “Sufficient evidence has been submitted to demonstrate that, as a matter of principle, replacement pitches of an equivalent quality and quantity can be provided as part of the development.”
The decision meeting takes place in public at the council offices in St Peter’s Hill, Grantham, at 1pm on Thursday, December 5.
A 650-home development at Quarry Farm, between Casterton Road and Little Casterton Road is also due to be discussed at the meeting, with councillors’ recommendations to be fed back to Rutland County Council, which has the job of determining whether or not it goes ahead.
