Uphill Grange - Village Society's response to planning application

The Village Society, after detailed consideration of the planning application for Uphill Grange has submitted the following observations to North Somerset Council:

Uphill Village Society observations in response to planning application number – 23/P/2551/LBC & related application number 23/P/2550/FUL.

The style & construction of the 10 x proposed terrace houses do not appear to be in keeping with the Bothy & coach house and kitchen garden. We would prefer to see construction material used that is in keeping with environment and replicates the stone & roofing as the Bothy & coach house.

The arboricultural impact assessment shows removal of G14 (lime, cherry, sycamore) & G12 (Bay laurel, Viburnam, Box, & Norway spruce) external to the walled gardens. Reasons are not given for the removal, and they appear to be external to the border of the terraced housing development with a proposal that they are included in a tree replacement strategy. As these are not being removed to facilitate access or construction, we would oppose their removal.

There is no mention of gardens, parks & public spaces management plan – we believe this is needed once the construction is complete.

The Affordable Housing statement makes reference to a full viability assessment in order to understand the justification for no affordable housing being made available as part of the development. The full viability assessment does not appear to have been supplied. We are strongly in support and would recommend that at least one property is classed as affordable housing. This is a village that has seen an increase in the value of properties and people who have been brought up in the village finding it unaffordable to buy here.

Ecological Impact assessment. We expect that all recommendations are implemented

Energy Statement. We welcome the use of air source heat pumps to reduce the carbon footprint of the site. With the use of the photovoltaics’ we would ask for a solution to the invertor lifespan (10 years) issue as this may see householders reverting to fossil fuel solutions after 10 years.

Transport assessment. Having reviewed the transport assessment we feel there are many gaps and items in need of correction: -

• Village shop & bus stops missing from the map
• Beladon Hill is Bleadon Hill
• The impact of planning permission in relation to planning application17/P/1138/ - development of 60 houses at the junction of Bleadon Hill, Bridgwater Road and Uphill Road South. The transport assessment appears to be based on current road useage without taking into account and additional 60 households from Bleadon Hill.
• The local highway network fails to reference Grange Road – a road that will be impacted by more traffic from this development and is already impacted by parking on both sides of the road causing blockages by those accessing properties within the village and those entering & exiting the hospital site.
• The road safety collision data has chosen the most granular point to look for collisions and should be much wider than this very, very narrow perspective.
• The assessment draws a comparison between the use of the property when a care home and the potential to change to a residential development. The assessment does not reflect that no staff parking was allowed on site and, at the last CQC inspection had 23 residents (optimal capacity was 44), and care home residents tend not to own or drive cars. 
• Comment 2.22 – we strongly disagree with conclusion as it is drawn from a narrow field of reference and takes no account of the increased traffic from the grange development and the Bleadon Hill development together. It also appears to not take account of the decreased visibility during working hours due to parked traffic opposite the entrance to the grange road.
• 3.7 of the assessment seems to think that the development is based in Clevedon, which gives the impression the document has been “cut & pasted” from a previous, different assessment.
• 3.17 – This is not a proposal for an employment & leisure development but is residential.
• 4.5 – the width of 7.5M may be sufficient for 2 HGVs to pass but as the left hand carriageway (driving towards Bridgwater Road) way has no parking restrictions it is used for parking between for hospital staff & visitors between the hours of 8am & 6pm with a lesser level of parking outside of these hours.    
• 5.10 – 5.12 We question each statement made within this section. Based on a care home that had 23 residents, with no staff parking moving to 10 new houses, 8 x 3 bedroom & 2 x 2-bedroom, 15 x 2 bedroom apartments and 3 bedrooms in the Coach house & Bothy. In each 2-bedroom residence there is a potential for 4 drivers and in each 3-bedroom residence a potential for a minimum (some of the 3 bedroom properties are proposed 3 double bedrooms) of 5 drivers. This gives a potential for moving from 23 care home residents (unlikely to own/drive a car), with no staff parking and 1 manager parking place, plus visitors to 113 residents plus visitors. We do not believe this will have no impact on the highways or traffic in the village.
• The exit/entrance to the Grange should have stop lines in place.
• Visibility when exiting the Grange & turning right will be restricted and have potential of encountering moving vehicles (30 mph) overtaking parked vehicles by using the lane the exiting vehicle will be moving into.
• Construction traffic management plan. We believe that this must take into account the quality of life for residents in the Park Home site and Grange Close. We would expect that a no queuing rule is applied to any HGV’s and HGV’s and large construction equipment movement is limited to the hours of 09.30am to 03.30am
• The 20-mph zone on Uphill Road South and suitable traffic calming measures will need to be implemented from the junction of Uphill Road South and Bridgwater Road.

Overall, the Village Society are supportive of the development of the Grange into residential accommodation but strongly believe this needs to work for the existing residents of the village and their submitted comments must be given strong consideration for a successful development.