SLAM: Manor Road Development Update

SLAM (School Lane and Manor Road), a group of local residents who want to preserve Milford on Sea for current and future generations, have sent us the notes from a recent meeting relating to an outline planning application submitted by local builder, Pennyfarthing Homes.

The planning application is for up to 190 new homes on 'Swallowfield Park', on land north of Manor Road, Milford on Sea, opposite Milford on Sea Primary School.

Good evening all,

Firstly thanks so much for all the feedback we have received today from members who went to the Parish Council planning meeting last night. We really appreciate you reporting back with your feedback from the meeting. Here is a couple of the reports we had back with some interesting points:

Manor Road Development Site
Picture by Advertiser & Times

A few of us went to the Parish Council meeting last night chaired by Sue Whitlock. Sue outlined the Parish’s position which is very much against the proposal. She was well prepared, had read all the objections submitted and said the Parish would submit their revised response by June 9th. 

Basically the key points are the same: density, infrastructure, access, traffic, etc. Collectively it was agreed the submission by Penny Farthing was arrogant and cynical and way above the village's needs and requirements. 

One interesting point was that Sue stated the village needed 54 affordable homes to meet current demand. Affordable being either rent, shared ownership or low cost purchase, thus adding to the point that the proposal was simply outrageous. 

There were a number of suggestions from the audience including exploring a covenant to ensure only homes are sold as primary homes, to explore the designation of green belt now that Michael Gove has changed legislation. There were residents from Manor Road, Barnes Lane and Newlands Manor present.

Sue confirmed there would be a full public meeting at a future date chaired by the Parish Council.

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I do wonder if the Parish Council deliberately made details of the meeting quite difficult to find as all of the public attendees were there for the Pennyfarthing development and if it were more apparent on their website I believe they would have been inundated. 

The Chairperson pre-empted the comments and in some detail talked about the infrastructure issues, mainly drainage. Schools at capacity were mentioned and the traffic impact on Manor Road. She then asked that these issues were not repeated by members of the public. One member of the public pointed out that the traffic surveys were carried out in 2020 being the height of the Covid restrictions meaning that the results were not a true picture. 

Also discussed was the Government’s proposed change of policy with regard to the development of Greenbelt land. The Greenbelt status has been removed from this land and David asked whether it could be restored. David is to speak to the Council Clerk with the view of establishing whether this could be achieved. It was also proposed that, if possible a covenant could be implemented whereby the houses could only ever be owner occupied as a main residence. There was an overall consensus that Pennyfarthing had not publicised their plans as much as they should have. The criteria for the households who received a letter does not seem to have been met. We should individually have received letters. Personally I think Covid was a golden opportunity for Pennyfarthing. An online presentation and as far as I’m aware the only other detailed information was pinned to the fence at the entrance to the public footpath on Manor Road. It is no wonder that many local residents are blissfully unaware.

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We have also had other emails from people asking to join SLAM and how they can help out. With Pennyfarthing looking to move forward with more detailed plans once they have had feedback on the outlined planning we feel now is a good time to ask for more help. Over the next few months, and probably years, we are going to need some more people to help out with the running of SLAM and bring some new ideas to the table. With this in mind would you like to be one of those to get involved?

SLAM has slimmed down somewhat since the last time we met over MOS1 (The Swifts Estate) so going forward it would be great for others to take a greater role on how it is run and possibly more regular meetings. If you feel like you can and would like to help then please do email us and we can set up a meeting for those who would like to and take things from there.

There have also been a few calls for a village meeting to discuss the proposed new estate. At this point we feel that as the planning application is just an outlined one then once we know more, fuller details about their plans, and with the current deadline of the 9th June for comments (objections) then it would be too soon to organise but its certainly something we can do in the near future.

Please do share this email with friends and family and remind them of the deadline coming up and also if they want to receive these updates too then we ask they send us a quick email to ask to be put on the list.

We look forward to hearing from you if you would like to get involved.

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To read previous SLAM article, please click here.

To view the outline planning application, please click here. 

About SLAM Group 

SLAM (School Lane and Manor Road) is a group of local residents who want to preserve Milford on Sea for current and future generations. SLAM believes the affordable housing should be built on brownfield sites in the village and not on the Green Belt and which surround and define Milford on Sea.

SLAM (School Lane and Manor Road)
slam.milford@gmail.com

www.facebook.com/slamresidents