Controversial plans for new homes in Carlisle have been redrawn after its bid was thrown out last year.
Castles and Coasts hope to build the new, largely affordable, homes on land to the east of Lansdowne Close.
The proposals have been under consideration since they were first put forward to the former city council two years ago – with amendments being made to the original application along the way.
It was proposed an 101-home development with 86 designated as affordable.
However, that application attracted over 1,000 objections.
Despite its potential to address Carlisle’s affordable housing shortage, planning officers recommended that plan be rejected on environmental grounds, highlighting concerns surrounding the potential harm to protected trees and the River Eden Special Area of Conservation.
Cumberland Council’s planning committee turned down the application in June last year.
Today, May 19, the housing association revealed revised plans for the development.
It said: “Castles & Coasts have considered all feedback received regarding the previous proposals, resulting in a careful redesign of the scheme to address the issues noted by Cumberland Council’s planning committee.”
The new proposal is for 91 homes – a mixture of two-bedroom bungalows and two, three and four-bedroom homes, which would be a mixture of affordable/social rent, Rent to Buy and Shared Ownership homes.
It said the key changes to the plan were:
- Removal of any development within the Hadrian’s Wall buffer zone
- Removal of any development within root protection areas of trees with a potential ‘veteran’ status
- House sizes increased to meet the Government’s nationally described space standards
The association’s head of development, David Brown, said: “There’s an acute need for new affordable housing in Carlisle and across Cumberland, evidenced by applications on the Cumbria Choice Based Lettings system exceeding 1,000 applicants for Carlisle alone.
“Increasing the availability of affordable housing options is identified as a key priority in Cumberland Council’s new draft 15-year Housing Strategy.
“In addition, due to the Government’s proposed new methodology under changes to the National Planning Policy Framework, annual housing targets for the Cumberland area are also set to increase by close to 400%.”
It has yet to submit the application to Cumberland Council and said it wanted to hear people’s views.
A consultation will be launched on Tuesday, May 20 and will run until Friday June 6.
It said it will look at the feedback, which will be used to review whether further amendments to the application need to be made.
For more information about the consultation, visit https://castlesandcoasts.co.uk/about-us/development-public-consultations/
