Plans for houses in a rural Isle of Wight village have met with resistance from residents, who claim irreplaceable wetlands would be impacted.
Mainland company Domusea Developments have put forward plans for two houses — one three and one four-bed — behind Lily Grove, a property on Brighstone Main Road.
Energy-efficient, barn-type detached houses
Plans say the designs are for energy-efficient, barn-type detached houses in a rural courtyard layout.
Agents for the developers, Smith Simmons and Partners (SS-P), say the development has been arranged to provide sufficient space between the new buildings and neighbouring properties.
Conservation Area and AONB
It is a site within the Brighstone Conservation Area and the Island’s Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), which SS-P say the proposals would conserve and enhance.
SS-P argue the 0.8-hectare site, which is thought to be the garden of Lily Grove, is brownfield land after a High Court judgement defined residential curtilage located outside a built-up area as previously developed land.
Never been part of the Lily Grove garden
However, the AONB Partnership, Brighstone Parish Council and neighbours argue the land has not previously been developed and has never been part of the Lily Grove garden, instead being used as a paddock for sheep, horses and cattle.
Around 20 objections have so far been submitted and raise concerns about it sitting within a Flood Zone and a lack of archaeological assessment as historical documents suggest a potential settlement could be located near to the site which dates back to 1086.
Rare and valuable natural habitat for wildlife
The parish council and nearby residents say they have identified the land is a water meadow and a rare and valuable natural habitat for wildlife, which the developer has supposedly not recognised.
The IW council’s tree officer says impact on trees will be far greater than envisaged in the reports and the proposed resolutions are impracticable and not possible.
Significant harmful impacts on the specialist characteristics of AONB
The AONB Partnership says the development would or would be likely to have significant harmful impacts on the specialist characteristics of the AONB.
It also says insufficient information has been submitted to determine impacts or mitigate any ecological harm to the site.
View your plans
You can view the plans, 22/01507/FUL, on the council’s planning register. Comments have closed but they can still be submitted to the authority although they may not be considered in any decision-making.
This article is from the BBC’s LDRS (Local Democracy Reporter Service) scheme, which News OnTheWight is taking part in. Some alterations and additions may have been made by OnTheWight. Ed
Image: Daniel McCullough under CC BY 2.0
