New Permission – Sandleford Park, Newbury

White Peak Planning were instructed by Bloor Homes Southern and the Sandleford Farm Partnership to co-ordinate an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) and prepare an Energy Statement for an outline planning application at Sandleford Park, Newbury, West Berkshire.  The application was for up to 1,000 homes, an extra care facility, a 2FE primary school, a local centre, a country park, and ancillary infrastructure.

This was a complex application which covered the majority of the allocated site and required the co-ordination of a large technical team.  A separate planning application was also being prepared concurrently by a third party for the remainder of the allocation and we worked closely with the EIA co-ordinator for that application to ensure that the assessments, particularly the cumulative impact assessments, were consistent.

The planning application was refused and subsequently taken to appeal in 2021.  Chris Garratt appeared as Expert Witness in relation to energy and sustainability, arguing against the Council’s position that the development should be zero carbon as this was based on an old policy that assumed Building Regulations would require all residential development to be zero carbon by 2016.

The appeal was called-in by the Secretary of State and allowed in 2022.  The planning condition imposed in relation to the energy performance of new residential dwellings does not require the dwellings to be zero carbon.

Due to the complex nature of the site, White Peak Planning has been retained by Bloor Homes to manage the preparation of applications for the approval of reserved matters.