Housing next to Southwell Roman settlement site rejected

[kevin wooldridge]

I have just been reading some background into this scheme. It seems the District Local plan calls for c450 new homes to be built in Southwell. The town council reckons 290. 'Housing density' seems to have been added to the rejection criteria after a councillor suggested that heritage reasons alone would not survive an appeal (especially as EH and the county archaeologist had not raised objections to the proposed scheme). There is a consultation period (ending 25th November) regarding the housing density issue. This was the reasoning for the second rejection to the scheme as being 'premature'. I totally agree with TMSArch that this cannot be seen as a 'victory' for archaeology....if that were the case it should have been rejected at a much earlier stage in the development process. One councillor (in his blog) intimates that if 13 rather than 29 dwellings were proposed for the site, he would remove his objection. This is crass NIMBYism if I have ever heard it, as the development only involves 14 building anyway. I am guessing his objection therefore is between semi- detached and detached housing.....

Still, I imagine this is how each and every new development is now going to be dealt with throughout England and Wales. Local councillors think they have been granted permission by Tory Central Office to object on 'localism' grounds, frantic scrabbling at the Ministry of Pickles to keep their developer friends rich and happy!! So look forward to many more examples of similar stories over the life of this parliament....