Local authority has concerns about the potential increase in traffic
Braddan Commissioners is objecting to a planning application which would see 320 homes built on fields next to Braddan School.
The application is yet to go to planning but has attracted a number of responses from residents in the nearby area.
Currently the application features houses, 80 of which would be affordable, a primary school and a nursery.
The local authority says it is objecting to the planning application on five grounds – the principle of development, housing mix, design, landscape and highways and access.
In a statement the authority says it ‘welcomes’ the reduction in houses from 328 to 320, the removal of a care home to allow for ‘green infrastructure’ and changing the layout of the planned estate to allow current homeowners privacy from the new houses.
However, the commissioners say the changes don’t go far enough.
It would like to see a further reduction in the number of houses being built, recommendations from the Area Plan for the East suggest ‘around 300’.
There are also issues with ‘limited provision’ for one or two bed houses planned in the development, and commissioners say the proposals offer little ‘variation’ and ‘interest’.
The local authority also says having a single point of access from the estate onto Braddan Road will lead to queues and ‘aggressive driving’.
If this proposal does go ahead, the development will require ‘substantial’ earthworks, including for site access, which will have an ‘unacceptable adverse effect’ on the road.
Hartford Homes, the developers, say in the application that the proposal will help ‘attract and retain’ the economically active population which ‘supports the vision’ of the government.