A CONTROVERSIAL plan to build nearly three dozen homes in Warfield which already received permission once before is set to get the council’s approval again in a move which will save the authority £35,000.

Hodson Developments originally submitted proposals to put up 33 homes at Herschel Grange off Warfield Street in June 2019 following the demolition of an existing house, but more than 18 months later the fate of the building work is still up in the air.

This is despite councillors giving applicants their blessing to go ahead with the works in December 2019.

The council’s planning committee will judge the designs once again next week following a “number of failings” in officers’ assessments of the proposals.

Why are the plans being considered again?

In May 2019, Bracknell Forest Council refused a similar plan to build 34 homes (including eight affordable) at the same space in Warfield.

The authority threw out the designs as it was deemed harmful to the countryside, biodiversity and community infrastructure.

READ MORE: Controversial plans for 33 homes in Warfield approved

At a planning meeting seven months later, a second application for 33 homes (ten of which would be made affordable) was authorised for approval following an officer’s recommendation to green light the scheme.

But by March 2020 the application had still not been given the final seal of approval, however, as a legal agreement had not been secured.

This forced the council to extend the date by which approval could be given to 1 May 2020.

Bracknell News:

Two weeks after this deadline, the Warfield Village Action Group sent a letter to the council claiming councillors did not sufficiently consider the reasons given for refusing the first application when judging the second application.

A solicitor acting on behalf of the Action Group claimed BFC did not provide adequate reasons for coming to a different conclusion and therefore the authority could be sued because of this.

The Action Group’s solicitor asked the council to take the application back to the planning committee.

READ MORE: Plans for 305 homes in Warfield approved

If this request was not granted, the solicitor suggested the Action Group would make a legal challenge and seek to reverse the planning permission while claiming costs from the council, too.

It was alleged the council could face paying out up to £35,000 if a decision went against it.

Following this, the council took legal advice from specialist planning consultants and it was agreed that the application should be judged once again by the planning committee.

Why did the council decide this was the best action to take?

A Bracknell Forest Council report read: “As part of the thorough review process it became apparent that there were a number of failings in relation to the assessment of both planning applications.”

And as mentioned in the Action Group’s letter, it was agreed that planning officers failed to clearly identify why the second application had been recommended for approval following the refusal of the first application.

It also became clear to the authority that there were different interpretations of the site’s landscape character and its location in relation to the countryside between the applications.

According to the council’s report, there were issues in obtaining responses from neighbours in relation to the second application, too.

READ MORE: 197 homes proposed for Warfield

What happened next?

After it was agreed that the application should be reconsidered by the planning committee, a new consultation was launched amongst neighbours of the site.

Objections were received from 26 residents the first time the second application was considered, and another 12 have been lodged in anticipation of the plans coming back to the committee.

Bracknell News:

The developers have made a number of changes to the site in light of these objections, including modifications to the site’s vehicle access, pedestrian access, the location and position of some of the homes, drainage and more.

What is being recommended now?

Despite the ‘failings’ in the comparative assessments of the planning applications before, council officers are sticking to their guns and are recommending the revised plans are approved.

It is suggested that the reasons for the new recommendation are sufficiently different from the reasons given for refusal of the first application for 34 homes.

A council report explained:

  • The plans have been ‘materially amended’ to address elements of the scheme which would have an ‘adverse impact’ on the character of the area
  • Therefore, the level of harm on the character of the area from the development is reduced
  • The second application addresses concerns relating to drainage and biodiversity and proposes ‘additional benefits’ such as extra affordable housing.

The council’s planning committee will get a chance to have another say on the plans when it meets on Thursday, February 11.