Housing plan for Newport site ‘used for fly-tipping’ withdrawn

Potential developers of a vacant site close to Newport town centre have withdrawn plans to build nine homes to consider options following council feedback.

Staffordshire-based MAG Developments Ltd has told Telford & Wrekin Council planners that it is “disappointed and perplexed” by the council’s feedback about requirements for the site.

The developer says buying the 0.7-acre plot of land off Water Lane is conditional on it getting planning permission.

“We are weighing our options regarding a resubmission,” Alexander Beckett of the company told the council.

The developer wrote that it had received feedback about the need for “terraced town housing” but has argued that “there is no longer the appetite for that style of housing”.

Plans for 25 properties on the site had been withdrawn in 2016 following concerns about ‘overdevelopment’.

The developer says the council feedback would mean increasing the number from nine. This could also impose costs on the company if it has to include ‘social’ housing. 

Mr Beckett wrote: “It should be appreciated that every site has to have a commercial aspect and it is our opinion that there is no longer the appetite for that style of housing within modern society, to be borne in mind that the nation spent some 20 years post-war in demolishing and ridding such properties as they were considered not environmentally fit to live in.”

The council’s highways department had objected to the plan and recommended a number of issues are dealt with.

The applicant wrote that the costs of the plans are rising because of what the council wants to happen, potentially affecting its commercial viability.

“We have reviewed our figures for the site and we are unsure as to how commercially viable development would be on the site with increased density based on expected contributions,” the applicant writes.

The company had proposed building three three-bedroom terrace homes and six four-bedroom detached homes on the land, which has stood vacant for 20 years.

It had been a vehicle sales site but is now a hotspot for fly-tipping.

“The site in its existing form has no amenity worth for the local area. Due to fly-tipping on the site, it actually detracts from the local area significantly,” the applicants had told the council.

Officials in the council had raised “some concerns” about the design of the housing on the site.

“Historic terraces in Newport typically exhibit strong linearity and rhythm; the proposed broken form risks appearing contrived and suburban rather than genuinely reflective of burgage plot development,” officials had responded.

“It is considered that further design refinement should be considered to achieve a more appropriate frontage to the streetcene.

“Subject to resolution of these concerns and conditions securing materials, joinery and landscaping, the principle of development may be acceptable from a built heritage perspective.”