Casting vote sinks Wellow development

Wellow residents have won their battle to stop new housing on greenfield land, next to the main road through the hamlet, after Isle of Wight councillors on Tuesday rejected plans for up to ten homes.

A revised outline proposal split the planning committee down the middle, with five councillors voting for and five against. The refusal was ultimately down to the casting vote of committee chairman Cllr Warren Drew. The decision went against planning officers’ recommendation to approve the scheme subject to conditions and a Section 106 agreement, which included 35 per cent affordable housing and a £15,000 contribution towards rights of way improvements.

After a debate, planning development manager, Russell Chick, helped the committee formulate its reasons for refusal, saying the scheme would place ten new homes “outside of a settlement boundary, away from services and facilities,” creating “an unsustainable form of development reliant on access by private car.” And that the houses, access road and parking areas would harm the rural character of the area through their “physical and visual impact.”

Several councillors voiced their concerns. Cllr Paul Fuller said the site lay “right in the middle of our countryside,” with nothing in the plans to mitigate landscape harm. Cllr Michael Lilley raised safety fears and Cllr Becca Cameron added she could not consider the scheme sustainable when it relied on an hourly bus service.

Others took a different view. Cllr Ian Ward questioned the assumption of unsustainability, arguing that people already lived in Wellow and accessed schools and work from there.

Speaking for the applicant, David Long warned councillors that voting against the proposals: “Is a direct strike against a plan that you’ve already voted for.” He argued the site lay “inarguably in the centre of Wellow,” adding: “Objectors’ houses are not a construct of God’s own creation… this is just Wellow’s next succession of change.”

Shalfleet Parish Council maintained its objection, with Cllr Jonathan Hill describing the scheme as “suburban in form, urban in feel – entirely out of keeping with Wellow.”