I was told today that the planning application for Brookwood Lye has gone in. I had hoped to be able mention the application reference, but I think it hasn’t been validated yet and so there isn’t a reference I can publish. As soon as I have that application reference, and I know it is on the portal, I will publish it here.
The application has had some minor tweaks over what was originally proposed, but substantially it is still the same. The Traveller site is compressed significantly in size and the number of pitches increased by one to 19. There will also be a manager’s building and possibly a single transit pitch. The bungalow will form part of the site and will probably be rebuilt as a house although I’m not sure if that application will be part of this.
The housing on the rest of the site will be predominantly one or two bedrooms made up of both flats and houses. A few three and four bedroom houses will be built nearer the crossroads. The flats will be three storeys high and mainly up by the railway line. I do have some concerns about the block nearer the road which I think will be over bearing, however I intend on pushing for a good level of screening at that point. In total, there will be 126 dwellings.
Each dwelling will have at least one parking space with many having two although they won’t be allocated parking. There will also be a number of motorcycle bays and cycle storage for each dwelling. The parking arrangements adhere to the new borough parking standards which is currently in draft form after the last round of consultation that I contributed to.
60% of the dwellings will be affordable, with the rest sold at market value. Selling at market value subsidises the affordable, and provides capital to fund the improvements to Brookwood Crossroads. As you know, Brookwood Crossroads was one of the three junctions from the September consultation to be accepted and detailed plans are being worked up taking into consideration comments received. I don’t know when those proposals will come forward.
There will be a local first policy on the affordable which will give nearby residents a shot at the dwellings first. There is still a lot of detail to still be developed on this policy and I’m working with the Leader of the Council, and the Portfolio holder for housing to develop this. I view this as one of the three key priorities for the site.
Once the application is live on the portal, I shall write further posts on my thinking in more detail. I particularly want to cover off what I see as the benefits of the development and also address the perceived and real negative aspects.
Finally, this eyesore is going to be sorted. The village of Brookwood will benefit from it primarily by having a well designed Traveller site which has no room for further expansion, improvements to the local traffic flow at Brookwood Crossroads, and a local first policy giving people in the village local housing options.
Cheers.
Kevin
Cllr Kevin Davis 