The Lea Castle Village is a residential led mixed-use development centred on the former Lea Castle Hospital site to the north-east of Kidderminster in Wyre Forest District Council (WFDC). It is made up of a core site and a wider site made up of parcels of land to the north, east and west of the core site.
The site is an allocation in the emerging Wyre Forest District Local Plan that is currently the subject of an Examination in Public, having been submitted to the Secretary of State for Examination on 30 April 2020. The core site has already been granted outline and reserved matters planning approval (further information can be found below), whilst work is currently underway to prepare an outline planning application for the wider site areas.
The wider site proposals currently include:
The site is owned by Homes England who will submit an outline planning application for the proposed development.
The core site covers approximately 43.24ha of now cleared former hospital buildings, as well as significant woodland belts that originally screened the former hospital buildings from the surrounding area. There are existing sports pitches on the core site.
The core site, which has outline and reserved matters approval is now under construction. The outline planning permission (granted 27 June 2019) was for:
Approval for access arrangements include a main access point from Park Gate Road, secondary access from The Crescent and limited access to a small number of properties from Axborough Lane.
The site’s allocation is justified by the WFDC’s evidence, including its site selection and Sustainability Appraisal Process, which finds that the site is appropriate when compared with the reasonable alternatives. Homes England supports this. There is a need to accommodate development and meet housing and employment needs which cannot be achieved solely on land outside of the Green Belt and which cannot be accommodated in neighbouring authorities. The development is making best use of a brownfield site and surplus public sector land. The allocation is of sufficient size that ensures the sustainability of the core site is enhanced through provision of a local centre, primary school, employment, new playing pitches and extensive open space.
The core site within this allocation already benefits from planning permission for a mixed-use development and the site is surplus public sector land. Providing further mixed-use development at this location is entirely logical and represents good planning. The scale would create a new sustainable village which, in addition to a considerable amount of new market and affordable housing, would benefit from a new primary school, local centre including retail community uses and employment. As such, the development would be self-sufficient for everyday needs, reduce pressure on existing local facilities and would provide good sustainable transport connectivity beyond the village. However, being close to Kidderminster the development would also support facilities within the town.
The site is within Homes England’s ownership. Homes England is the Government’s housing accelerator tasked with using public land and working collaboratively with partners to deliver houses where they are most needed.
Survey work has confirmed that there are no overriding constraints to delivery of the allocation. Homes England has been working closely with the WFDC and key stakeholders to establish the appropriate mix of uses for the scheme and will continue to do so throughout the planning application process. Homes England is committed to bringing forward a high-quality sustainable scheme as quickly as possible to deliver much needed new development in the district and to assist the Council in meeting the Government’s housing delivery targets.
There is currently an agricultural tenant on the wider site and the existing playing pitches are also subject to a tenancy agreement.
Homes England is committed to delivering 1,400 dwellings and community facilities on site by 2036. Homes England’s remit is to increase the number of new homes built and accelerate housing delivery and therefore it is well placed to deliver the requirements of this site by 2036. The single ownership will reduce complications or delays that can be associated with multiple ownership of land.
Clear evidence of Homes England’s commitment is the fact that construction has already started on the core Site, and the developer, Vistry Homes has committed to accelerate the pace of delivery, working alongside Citizen to deliver new homes. Early delivery of the core site has significant benefits for the delivery of the local centre, school and new playing pitches, ensuring the site’s sustainability from an early stage of development.
The nature of the site, with separate accesses means that there is potential for more than one parcel to be delivered at once, increasing delivery rates. The unique character of each area and opportunity for more than one developer including Small and Medium-sized Enterprises will offer considerable choice of housing. Homes England can take on the master developer role, delivering strategic infrastructure and ensuring excellent placemaking. It is anticipated that around 80 to 160 dwellings could be completed per annum.
The core site is anticipated to be complete in eight years and first completions on the wider site would be in 2024. If 80 dwellings were completed per annum on the wider site, then the development would be complete by 2034. However, it is anticipated that the pace of development will be increased through multiple outlets, thus reducing this timescale.
Responding to existing market conditions it is intended that there will be a mix of tenures and sizes of dwelling on site of between 1-5 bed housing. The actual type of dwelling proposed on the site will be a matter addressed through the Reserved Matters applications.
There is a requirement for the site to include a minimum of 25% affordable housing. Homes England considers that this is justified in order to meet the affordable housing requirements of the district. Homes England is committed to provision of policy compliant levels of affordable housing on the site and has access to a range of funding tools that could support the delivery of affordable homes.
Homes England is also working with local community groups and partners to develop proposals for an element of self-build housing and is currently working with local community groups to identify appropriate locations for this provision on site.
Once outline planning permission is secured, Homes England will agree a building lease with a Development Partner or more than one Development Partners who would submit the reserved matters/detailed planning applications and build out the site. Once each property is built the freehold would be transferred from Homes England to the homeowner of registered provider in the case of affordable housing. In the case of community facilities and open space, the freehold would be transferred to a management company unless WFDC or the Parish Council wanted to adopt these areas.
By retaining control over the site as it is developed, Homes England can ensure that the developer is able to deliver the quality of housing and other aspects of the development required. This will include meeting high standards, for instance in relation to Building with Nature accreditation and Building for a Health Life accreditation.
The current proposals include a range of new facilities and opportunities that are not just reserved for residents of the new village but will provide benefits for local people and link with or enhance existing local projects and schemes.
7ha of the site has been earmarked for employment use that will provide space for new businesses and organisations, bringing with it new job and training opportunities for the local area. The village itself will take approximately five years to build and will require the skills and expertise of specialist tradesman that could be hired locally.
Affordable housing will also be delivered as part of the scheme, giving young people and first-time buyers the opportunity to own their own home.
Additional facilities that will benefit the local area will include:
All of the above will take pressure off existing local services and facilities in the area.
WFDC is proposing to allocate the land immediately to the north, east and west of the core site as part of a new sustainable community known as Lea Castle Village through its Local Plan. The Local Plan identifies where development sites for homes and business will be and the services and infrastructure needed to support them.
A pre-submission version of WFDC’s Local Plan was published for consultation in November 2018, with a subsequent consultation took place in September / October 2019. It was then submitted for Public Examination to the Secretary of State for Examination in April 2020. The Local Plan Examination took place in January and February 2021 and WFDC will be consulting on main modifications that are required to make the Local Plan sound in Autumn 2021. Adoption of the new Local Plan is expected in around April 2022.
We will be consulting with the public from 21 June to 11 July 2021.
In response to feedback received, as well as the conclusion of discussions with WFDC and statutory consultees, the proposals will be refined for the outline planning application submission. It is anticipated that the application would be submitted to WFDC in late summer 2021.
The outline planning application will seek approval for the main principles of the development and agree access arrangements. The layout of buildings and details of their scale and appearance, together with details of site-wide landscaping, will be the subject of separate ‘Reserved Matters’ applications to be submitted at a later date by the housebuilders.
The outline planning application will be supported by a suite of technical documents which will demonstrate how the proposals meet local planning policy requirements. These reports will collectively assess the environmental, socio-economic and technical effects of the development. This will also include a S106 Agreement Draft Heads of Terms setting out the required planning contributions and obligations.
A Statement of Community Involvement (SCI) will also be submitted following public consultation in the summer, which will explain the consultation process and demonstrate how the scheme has responded to comments made by all consultees including the local residents and stakeholders. The SCI will include where changes to the scheme have been made following consultation and feedback received, and where this has not been possible, the reasons why.
On receipt of the outline planning application, WFDC will undertake statutory consultation on the submitted development proposals. The public will then have the opportunity to formally submit comments on the proposals for the site. If the outline application is approved, Reserved Matters applications to agree the details for the development would be submitted by the housebuilders before any work can start on-site. It is expected that reserved matters would be submitted in late 2022.
Whilst Lea Castle Village will have connections to the surrounding area, it is being created to be self-sufficient in terms of everyday needs for retail, primary school and play/exercise and will clearly has its own identify as Lea Castle.
An Environment Impact Assessment (EIA) is an assessment sometimes undertaken as part of a project to understand any potential environmental effects prior to a decision being made on whether to grant planning permission. Following an EIA screening exercise, WFDC confirmed in February 2021 that the planning application for the development of the outer parcels of the Lea Castle Village does not require an EIA.
Key ecological issues on this site have included the presence of European Protected Species of bats, including lesser horseshoe, brown long-eared and pipistrelle. The demolition of redundant buildings required the re-provision of replacement roosts elsewhere on site. Usually this would require construction of new bat houses or where required, larger bat barns. In this case, in addition to a new-build bat house and two larger bat barns, an existing redundant substation was converted to a bat house, with different roosting structures incorporated to accommodate the different species.
This solution achieved time and financial savings, while enabling the re-purposing of an existing building. As the site is developed for housing, information boards will be provided to explain the use and importance of these buildings as bat roosts to local residents.
Additionally, a lighting strategy to include dark corridors and specialist bat lighting is being introduced on the site to maintain commuting and foraging corridors between bat barns/houses and off-site foraging habitats surrounding the site. Additional planting and screening is also being introduced to further mitigate the impacts of the development on bat species.
A dormouse nest had previously been found on the site and therefore the development has retained all of the existing tree groups and woodland around the periphery of the site to maintain the existing commuting routes for dormice around the site and into the wider landscape. However, it was recognised that the spine road may make connectivity from north to south along the western site boundary more challenging. To combat this, additional landscape planting will be incorporated on either side of the spine road at considered crossing points, providing a commuting route through the trees.
The Council’s justification for reviewing Green Belt boundaries is set in the context of needing to accommodate development and meet its housing needs. The Council has considered the reasonable options for meeting its housing need. It has confirmed that neighbouring authorities are unable to accommodate any of its needs and there are insufficient suitable brownfield or non-Green Belt sites to the east of the River Severn. Based on its evidence base and Sustainability Appraisal findings, the Council considers that there are exceptional circumstances that justify the change to the Green Belt at this location to enable a mixed-use development of sufficient scale to be sustainable. This change to the Green Belt is being proposed through the Local Plan.
The allocation is surrounded by the local road network, creating a long-term defensible boundary to the village which will contain the development and avoid coalescence with other settlements, whilst still allowing pedestrian and cycle connections to Cookley and Broadwaters.
Homes England has been working with the Worcestershire Green Infrastructure (GI) Partnership to consider opportunities to improve GI on and around the wider site by ensuring that the site’s woodland is protected and opportunities for wider biodiversity and recreational links are created. Access to the woodland on the core site is to be opened up with footpaths through the area. A significant area of grassland habitat is proposed, and sustainable drainage features will be integrated into the scheme.
Around 40% of the total allocation area will be GI, providing significant opportunities for physical activity close to people’s homes. The Concept masterplan includes land for allotments or community orchards, encouraging healthy living.
The new village will include a range of facilities as part of the new village that will ensure a self-sufficient scheme for everyday needs, reducing the car dependency of new residents and encouraging walking and cycling within the scheme. This in turn would reduce pressure on existing facilities within the local area as well as the local highway network.
Worcestershire County Council (WCC) is satisfied that the sustainable transport choices being promoted by the developer for the core site are viable and will provide good sustainable transport connectivity beyond the village, particularly when this allocation is considered.
The policy requires provision of pedestrian and cycle links both within and off the site (where deliverable) to connect to facilities in Kidderminster. Improved pedestrian and cycle links to Broadwaters are already consented as part of the core site permission, and Homes England is committed to identify further opportunities to enhance pedestrian and cycle routes, including improved crossing facilities.
As part of the core site proposals, one of the existing bus services that provides a service between Kidderminster and Cookley, is to be re-routed through the site, with new bus stops located within the development. This will ensure that new residents are within a short walking distance of bus stops and is likely to encourage public transport use.
The wider site is also within a short walking distance of some existing bus stops, but with the larger scale of development there is further opportunity to increase the frequency of bus routes through the site and to consider the options for greater bus links to Kidderminster railway station, with the potential for re-routing the 125 bus service through the site. The feasibility of a shuttle bus to Blakedown railway station would also be investigated. School bus provision to Wolverley High School and its funding will be dealt with through the planning application.
Highway improvements will be necessary to mitigate the impact of the development. Traffic modelling is undertaken to understand the impacts the development will have on transport infrastructure. Worcestershire County Council (WCC) undertook a series of modelling exercises using the Wyre Forest Transport Model to model what developments have been allocated in the Local Plan and establish the cumulative impacts of the development on the road network. This work also identified mitigation measures and strategic infrastructure improvements on the wider road network that will mitigate the impacts of the development traffic. The Wyre Forest District Council Infrastructure Delivery Plan identifies these strategic measures and potential funding sources for each of the projects.
Once the detail of the proposals is worked up as part of the planning application, the Transport Assessment and modelling work will establish the specific mitigation measures required that will be agreed with WCC Highways. The developer will either undertake the works directly, or make a financial contribution towards the works for WCC to undertake. A Framework Travel Plan will also be prepared for the application to set out various measures that can be put in place to encourage people to use more sustainable methods of travel.
Homes England is committed to engaging with and involving a diverse mix of stakeholders, including local communities. This will be undertaken from an early stage in the development process, giving stakeholders the opportunity to influence the proposals and ultimately help Homes England deliver a village that provides benefits to and works with existing local communities and their needs and ambitions. This will be undertaken in various ways, including workshops with community representatives, updates via social media and the project website, and a public consultation in June 2021 which will provide people with the opportunity to feedback on the proposals.
Working in collaboration with WFDC and local community groups, Homes England will ensure that a wide range of stakeholders are identified and engaged, including those from hard-to-reach groups, so that as many people as possible are able to voice their opinions and input.
