Appeal lodged over nine new Northwood houses

Planning agents have accused the Isle of Wight Council of ‘effectively undermining its own strategic policy’, when it turned down an application for nine new houses on greenfield land in Northwood in January 2020.

Appeal documents, submitted by Andrew White Planning Consultancy, say that the homes should be allowed as they are on the edge of a settlement boundary, and the council’s planning policies allow this, albeit that such sites are less sustainable than those within the settlement boundary. They also point towards a previous appeal the agents won, for a development at Aldermore Farm in Ryde, which they claim had very similar circumstances and the council had turned down for similar reasons. Two previous decisions to allow buildings in Pallance Lane are also cited.

The development intends to use an already approved access onto Pallance Road, granted to allow access to the site field ‘for the enjoyment of the land’ for just 28 days a year. The agents claim that a photograph of the hardstanding access shows that ‘an encroachment of the development into the countryside has already occurred’. They say that all other objections have been overcome. The proposals do not include any affordable homes for either sale or rent.

Island Roads recommended that the proposal should be refused on the grounds that it was likely to encourage private car use and Northwood Parish Council’s view was that the application would tend to destroy the view of Northwood as an attractive village. Their objection said: “Approval of this application would result in the demise of the desirability of the setting and the attractive settlement identity of Northwood village.”