Watermill Bridge development
After the HPC Annual Meeting on 20 May at which Emily Woods from Bewley Homes presented, she went away with a number of questions from parishioners which she has provided answers for:
The likely Management Company structure for the future maintenance of open space, drainage infrastructure and roads.
The site will most likely be moved into a Residents Management Company. Bewley will manage each phase until a point where all roads / open space elements are set up to the required standard as secured by the planning permission, each phase will then be transferred to the Management Company. The Man Co will be set up by Bewley and eventually be owned by the residents and registered housing provider (owners of the affordable housing on site). Management charges will be taken from each new home on the site annually to cover the Management Company’s cost of maintenance, payment is mandated by covenants on the properties.
Who will hold the riparian rights to the southern riverbank?
Riparian rights for the River Enborne will sit with Bewley (as landowners) until the site is transferred to the Management Company (owned by Residents & Registered Housing Provider on site).
Please provide tree retention plans for the whole development
Attached - please see attached existing tree removal/retention plan we submitted with our application (not an approved plan as ‘Outline’ element, tree removals are shown/secured on approved planning drawings for detailed phases). Please note, additional and replacement planting is not shown on the tree plan and will be finalised through the discharge of planning conditions.
Please confirm whether the access works involve a change in speed limit
The access works are pending S278 agreement with Hampshire County Council, however our Technical team have confirmed that initial designs do not include a speed limit change. Bewley commissioned an independent Road Safety Audit with the benefit of a collision assessment which didn’t raise an issue with the current speed limit.
Please share the indicative cycle route plan appended to the planning permission legal agreement (S106) – this will be caveated by the ‘in principle’ nature of this plan and the need for detailed design approval with West Berkshire which will likely result in amendments within the scope of the S106 plan.
Please see attached plan showing the ‘in principle’ cycleway plans (taken from the S106/UU legal agreement accompanying our planning permission). Final designs agreed with West Berkshire may differ from the attached as they will need to consider the various constraints to development on the Andover Road. (Contact the Clerk- this file is too large for the website).
Please provide detail on lighting proposals (may not be available until condition discharge stage)
Lighting details were not approved through our planning permission. Planning Conditions 34, and to some degree also Conditions 6 & 19 require Bewley to submitted lighting details to Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council for approval prior to occupying new homes on site.
Please confirm the anticipated no. children within the population of the new development – relating to school places.
Bewley commissioned a report by EFM Education which was submitted as part of our planning application, to summarise the relevant findings / conclusions of the report. I am happy to share the full report if of interest:
Hampshire County Council (“HCC”) stated in their previous School Places Plan 2018-2022: Across the county as a whole the pupil yield for primary schools averages out at 30 primary age pupils per 100 dwellings, for secondary the figure is 21 pupils per 100 dwellings. HCC updated their School Places Plan for 2023-2027, although the child yield is not discussed. It is assumed that the same figures are being utilised. When applying the child yield above to new development of 270 dwellings, you get the following:
270 x 0.3 = 81 Primary School aged children (0.4FE) – 11-12 per Year Group; and
270 x 0.2 = 54 Secondary School aged children (0.36FE) – 10-11 per Year Group.
The above child yield numbers can be considered the “worst case scenario”, as this does not factor in the elderly residential accommodation nor one bed dwellings. Net migration to new dwellings increases the number of pupils locally, but predominantly focused in Reception Year for Primary, and Year 7 for Secondary. If a child is already in a Primary or Secondary School when they move onto the development, they are very unlikely to change schools. A proportion of the children moving into the new homes will already be in the school system, as a proportion of people moving into new homes do not move far. There is also the consideration that a proportion of pupils will attend Independent Schools. The likely impact on the school system will be less than forecast and should be focused in either Reception Year or Year 7, as any other year group wouldn’t likely necessitate a change of school.
Emily will share the full list of planning conditions attached to the planning permission (this should answer questions over how drainage and traffic management are secured).
Please see attached full list of planning conditions attached to the planning permission.
Emily will also provide a short summary of the key points I presented regarding the approx. no. of homes, housing mix and proposed community facilities within each parish.
Total no. homes with permission = 270 (82 on Phase 1, 188 on later phases)
Phase 1 housing mix- see image below.
Affordable mix Later Phases:
53% Rented : 22% Shared Ownership : 25% First Homes
Highclere
c. 160 homes (82 in Phase 1, c.75-80 in later phases south of Phase 1)
1 x kickabout area
2 x LEAPs - 1 x riverside park, 1 x woodland (potentially on boundary between parishes)
Community Building / community garden (potentially on boundary between parishes)
East Woodhay
c.110 homes (later phases)
1 x kickabout area
Health & wellbeing centre
Allotments
Equipped play trim trail
