DARTMOUTH
OUR DARTMOUTH DEVELOPMENT
Welcome to our community website where you can learn more about our proposals for new homes on Land at Little Cotton Farm, Dartmouth. Baker Estates acquired the site, which is allocated for development in the Plymouth & South West Devon Joint Local Plan, in 2018 and has been working hard since then to bring forward proposals for a residential-led, mixed-use development. We are progressing reserved matters applications that deal with the detail of appearance, landscaping and layout. This is because outline permission, which established the principle of development, has already been granted:
• Phase 1 (up to 240 homes, plus employment land, a local centre, public open space and access off Townstal Road) was granted on appeal in March 2016;
• Phase 2 (a further 210 homes) was granted by South Hams District Council (SHDC) in May 2019.
OUR PROPOSALS
In March 2019, we first held a public exhibition and then submitted a reserved matters application (RMA) for 240 homes, covering the land known as ‘Phase 1’. Following extensive discussions with officers, we revised our plans and submitted a separate RMA in November 2019 for 116 units on approximately half of the Phase 1 area. While the outline consent requires just 11% affordable housing on this phase, we are proposing to accelerate delivery and provide 36 affordable homes (31%) which would be available either for affordable rent or discount market sale and local families would be prioritised. We anticipate a decision on this application very shortly. Our original application remains on hold. However, it is likely that we will progress this, in respect of the remaining 124 units, during 2020. Separately, we received approval in January 2020 to amend the parameter plan for Phase 1, which was agreed as part of the outline permission and which sets out the location of the employment, public open space and residential areas. This now accords fully with our master plan. We also have permission to broaden the range of employment uses to include hospitality and leisure (in addition to business and storage/distribution); we sought this in response to the inquiries we are receiving from potential end-users. We first set out our approach to Phase 2 at our exhibition in March last year and will bring forward developed proposals in due course.
DESIGN
We know that the southern edge of the site is most sensitive to the local community and wanted to provide reassurance on our approach.
The northern part of the site, closest to Townstal Road, will have the highest densities. That then enables us to reduce density as the site feathers out to the south-east and west, introducing bungalows and also a non-linear building line, with homes facing in different directions.
We plan to use buff coloured brick which will appear softer from distant views of the site. On Phase 2, we will deliver over 100 bungalows and may use stone, timber boarding and perhaps even thatch, as we have done on our development in Totnes. These rural/agricultural style properties allow us to create a softer edge.
INFRASTRUCTURE
Vehicular access to the new homes will be provided off a new roundabout on Townstal Road, with a secondary access for the employment land to the north west. The site will be permeated by a number of cycleways and footpaths, enabling sustainable travel through the development and beyond to the east.
A Sustainable Drainage System (SuDS), using both attenuation and infiltration, will be introduced to ensure that surface water runoff rates are no higher than at present. We will connect, via a new sewer, to the sewerage network on Townstal Road; South West Water has confirmed that there is the capacity to enable this.
BENEFITS TO THE COMMUNITY
This development will bring a number of benefits to the local community, many of which are guaranteed by the S106 legal agreement:
Local centre and employment land: 2.7 hectares which can accommodate a range of uses, including retail, leisure and light industrial;
Open space: at around 2.5 hectares this is generous and will enable us to provide an oversized Neighbourhood Area of Equipped Play (NEAP) adjacent to the playing fields to the east as well as a Local Equipped Area of Play (LEAP) to the north as part of a large green square;
Affordable housing: almost 20% provision (86 homes) across the whole site;
Sports facilities: a contribution of almost £1.1 million
Education: a contribution of £52,500
There could also be as many as 120 local contractors working on the site at any one time during construction. We are therefore able to offer significant numbers of jobs over a sustained period.
