Is the council sufficiently sensitive to the area’s heritage and the environment when it grants permission for “soulless” high-density developments of one and two-bed flats? asked LibDem Peter Armstrong at a meeting of the Cabinet in November. He called for special workshops for councillors to learn how to meet “the real housing needs of the Borough” and was supported unanimously by all ten Cabinet members, with Cllr Richard Stevens drawing attention to “contentious planning applications like the Archery Ground”.
Encouraging? Not really. Nine days later the Council’s Planning Committee met and approved a contentious planning application for 100 new flats on the edge of the cricket ground at Horntye. The Borough’s Planning Officer told them the new blocks would “change the character of the Horntye complex but…the benefits outweigh any harm resulting”. The “benefits” include enabling the council to meet its housing delivery targets, which is exactly the same carrot being used by Gladedale in support of its application for the Archery Ground.