High Cross Housing Proposals

[RichardH]

Hope this isn't too far outside of Ware to be thought of as irrelevant...

Oakleys are selling off some land, and 57 houses are being proposed for the space, with 40% "affordable"

Here's the website from the developer. As a resident, I'm concerned about how closely some of the houses come to existing properties (particularly when they will have rooms in the loft spaces, hence increasing the overlooking-ness), amongst other things.

[TrickyDicky]

Looks like the classic "infill between the old road and the by-pass" is starting, expect more applications along here. I'm not against this, just pointing it out (and trying out the new forum)

[TrickyDicky]

Just clicked on the link and looked at the plans, it looks like a lot of houses in a small space so I may have changed my mind re being not against it. Certainly not good for existing residents.

[RichardH]

Indeed. There was a meeting with the developers last night in the village hall. They said a lot about it being designed as in keeping with the current style of housing in the village, but I'm not sure there are any 2.5 storey town houses here... and desite what they say the density is way higher than exsiting - mainly down to the tiny gardens. We'll be getting a house looming over us 30' from the garden fence, and some will be worse off - some houses are being built hard up against the ends of peoples' gardens.

[Pat-H]

I'd agree the gardens are smaller but with land as expensive as it is nowadays it's just not practical to make houses with massive gardens.
And from the plans the vast majority of current houses are protected from the new development by their large gardens.

We live in Kingsway and have to endure the nearby houses now overlooking us due to loft extensions.

I can appreciate it's a shame to end up looking over a housing estate instead of a green field but Oakley have been sitting on that land for just such a development opportunity.

With the current demand for housing this looks to be a reasonable development to me. Not perfect or ideal but not awful.

[RichardH]

Yes, I'm sure it could be worse, and you're quite right, there's no way they would offer similarly large gardens. We're possibly a bit more affected in that our house estends down the garden more than some, so we'll be closer to the new houses. Ho hum, no rights to a view and all that.

More concerns about the number of parking spaces allocated to the 2 and 3 bedroom "social/affordable" houses which I think will inevitably lead to overspill parking in adjacent aready which are already very tight for parking spaces.

Just hope all these new residents are happy to move somewhere with woeful broadband, frequent power cuts and a pitiful bus service....

[Pat-H]

On the up side it does look like they may address some of the local drainage issues and there is a half million pound contribution to local causes.

Shame about the loss of view and the area becoming more congested. I guess all the locals could club together and raise the money to buy the land and preserve it...

[Scottman]

Residents around Hertford Regional College (Ware Campus) are having some success with both Ware Town Council and East Herts Council in pushing back on housing development plans which are over-intensive for the amount of ground available and which overlook existing properties. The arrival of 'bonus rooms' the the attic space is inevitable, but it does cause overlooking to a greater degree.

Developers' first proposals are always an ambitious try on and you should think seriously about organising a push back to get something more realistic for the space available, with sensible car parking provision (2 cars min per unit as both will have to work to afford them) rather than the 'planning guide minimum' which was written in the 1950s. And try to ensure that the affordable housing is shared ownership, so that it is genuinely affordable and attracts tenants who will take care of their opportunity.

[RichardH]

Half a million to local causes - not really. A lot of that will go into funding improvements in infrastructure in the surrounding area to support the development - which would be necessary. Whether any of that money actually gets to the schools (and do schools that have become academies benefit anyway since they are funded by central government ratehr than the LEA), doctors etc to fund extra provision or not is another matter.

They have kindly offered to put in 6 parking spaces for the village hall (which I suspect will immediately get swallowed up by parking overspill from the social housing the plan to locate right next to it). Oh, and a throwaway comment about making a playground.

The social housing is part shared ownership, part rental.

[Pat-H]

From the actual website:

David Wilson Homes would be making contributions to local services, such as health and education, through a Section 106 agreement and in consultation with local service providers. These contributions will be, in total, around £500,000. Contributions would also be made for local highways improvements.

That states the section 106 agreement would be used to spend the £500,000 on local services and mentions health and education. But as stated academies aren't under the local authority so I can't see an automatic route to them for funds.

The contributions to the local highway improvements are mentioned outside the Section 106 statement so it would be expected that work will not be funded out of the £500,000