South Northants councillors refuse plans for 37 homes on village High Street

The outline application for the homes, which would have been built just off the High Street in Paulerspury, near Towcester, was refused by members of South Northamptonshire Council’s planning committee on Thursday (April 23).

The committee, which met virtually for the first time in its history due to social distancing guidelines during the coronavirus pandemic, followed officer advice to refuse the scheme.

Officers said that the application, submitted by Rainier Developments Ltd and National Westminster, contradicted the Local Plan.

They also stated that a development of this scale would ‘change the character of

part of the High Street and involve the loss of an important connection between the

High Street and the rural landscape to the south’.

The decision followed objections from Paulerspury Parish Council and letters of objection being received from 45 homes.

Recording his objection for the virtual meeting, parish councillor Ian Westall said: “The development of 37 dwellings would extend the village into the countryside in a way which would change the character and appearance of the locality to a marked degree.”

But Stuart Wells, of the Pegasus Group, argued on behalf of the applicants that half of the homes being built would be affordable, in a place where there had been few built over the last decade.

He added: “Residential development surrounds the site and the proposals do not cause harm to the form and character of Paulerspury, nor would they give rise to significantly adverse visual impacts.”

But ward councillor Sandra Barnes, who was also a member of the planning committee, agreed with the objectors. She also said that access to the site from the High Street would be ‘dangerous’ despite no objections being raised by the county council’s highways team.

Each of the councillors on the committee voted against awarding outline planning permission to the development.