Major 1,100 home estate on edge of Daventry set to be approved

Housing developers Stepnell have applied for outline planning permission for the Sustainable Urban Extension (SUE) to the south west of Daventry on land at Malabar Farm on the A425/Staverton Road.

Up to 275 of the dwellings will be deemed ‘affordable’, but the scale of the development means that the developers will have to pay heavily towards community infrastructure so the area can cope with the influx of new people that will move to the site.

One of the major contributions – which are listed as planning conditions – is the delivery of a new primary school and more funding towards other education.

The development is expected to generate approximately 351 pre-school pupils, 351 primary school pupils and 264 secondary and sixth form school pupils based on an average three-bed house mix across the site.

This means the developers will have to foot a bill of roughly £6.5 million for a new primary school to be built, while it will also have to contribute £4.3 million towards early year education and just over £5 million towards secondary education. The requests, by the county council, will also see £772,700 allocated for extended SEND facilities.

District council papers have also indicated that ‘there will not be enough capacity’ in existing healthcare facilities to absorb the anticipated increase in demand created by the development. To mitigate this, developers will have to support a local infrastructure expansion to the tune of £857,000, which will help the three closest surgeries Daventry PCN, Abbey House Surgery and Danetre Medical Centre.

It is the impact on health and education that has raised some concerns from Daventry Town Council, though it has raised no formal objections to the scheme. Its written consultation response states: “The Town Council is concerned that there will not be adequate facilities to serve this size of urban extension and requests that a site be allocated and reserved for a GP surgery for future growth within the town. Equally, the expansion land for the primary school should be considered to enable a sustainable development to grow over time.”

District council conservation officers meanwhile highlight that the proposal would have a ‘harmful impact’ upon the setting of Badby House, a listed building adjacent to the site; and a reduction in the speed limit on the A45 to 50mph will also be reviewed by the Northamptonshire Speed Limit Review Panel should the application proceed.

But Daventry District Council planning officers have highlighted that the scheme’s benefits, mostly offering new housing and affordable housing, outweigh the benefits – and that the site has been earmarked for development in the local planning policy.

Councillors on the council’s planning committee will decide whether to follow officer advice and approve the scheme when they meet virtually next Wednesday (December 9).