The laundry site development
MANNING ROAD

One of the most controversial housing schemes in recent years has been for the laundry site at the corner of Manning Road and Recreation Road which was submitted in November 2007 and finally approved by South Kesteven District Council in April 2009 after prolonged negotiations with the developers, Larkfleet Homes.

The site was vacated by Bourne Textile Services in the summer of 2008 when the company re-located to purpose built premises on the Cherryholt Road industrial estate at a cost of £800,000. The company retained the office block at the Manning Road site but planning permission was subsequently granted for residential development on the surrounding land.

The delay in granted planning permission was caused because Larkfleet Homes refused to agree to a contribution of £211,629 for health care and education demanded under the S106 agreement, the legal requirement to assist the local infrastructure in return for being given planning consent, insisting that it was too much and the amount was later reduced to £155,130 with the payments phased according to the progress of the building programme.

The development, however, did not meet with local approval with the town council leading the protest because of the high density of dwellings proposed. Larkfleet Homes applied to build 47 homes on the site which covers 1¾ acres (0.7 hectares) comprising 16 apartments and seven two and a half storey houses, 19 two storey houses and five coach houses, the total to include 15 affordable houses. But councillors complained that this would be oppressive over development, visually intrusive and likely to cause road and safety problems, and that even 25 properties might be too many. Objections, though, even from the local council with first hand knowledge of the locality, were ignored and a planning report from South Kesteven District Council said: “It is considered that the proposed scale and layout reflects those of other residential developments in the surrounding area."

Government policy is that housing is a basic human right for all and local authorities are instructed to meet the requirements of the entire community. Affordable housing, therefore, is meant to encompass both the low cost market and subsidised accommodation which should be made available to those on low incomes who cannot afford to buy on the open market. The situation has been created in the main because most local authorities have stopped building council houses and their responsibility in this has in many cases been passed over to housing associations which SKDC tried to do with its 6,300 properties (535 of them in Bourne) in 2006 but was thwarted by the regulatory ballot in which 73% of tenants voted against a transfer.

Therein lies a problem with new housing estates being built today. Developers want to use the land for as many units as possible and as government regulations require the inclusion of what it calls affordable housing, this will obviously mean smaller properties. In the past thirty years, we have seen new build houses shrink in dimension with claustrophobic rooms, pocket sized gardens and garages hardly big enough to squeeze in a family car. Now a small mix of houses that can be sold more cheaply is being included in most developments although the sale price for them remains relatively high, despite the drastic economies in size.

Ironically, the answer to housing density for affordable homes from past times can be seen in the immediate vicinity because the site is surrounded by council houses, in Harrington Street, Ancaster Road, Recreation Road and Alexandra Terraces. These were all solidly built by Bourne Urban District Council for rent by large families in the three up and two down style during the last century, mainly between 1914 and 1960 when the population was less than half of what it is now, and are still providing serviceable accommodation with a long life expectancy ahead. Many have also been bought under the Right to Buy scheme introduced by Margaret Thatcher under the Housing Act of 1985, thus allowing sitting tenants own the homes where they lived at discount prices.

Council houses are spacious with large gardens and lend themselves to continuous development, maintenance and even enlargement by enthusiastic owners and they have held their value, selling for much higher prices than the so-called affordable houses of today which are frequently bought by housing associations and rented out to problem and needy families. The policy of locating them within new residential areas of up market Georgian style properties is questionable and the evidence is that some tenants are causing friction with the neighbours, which appears to be happening at the town's biggest recent residential development at Elsea Park.

Soaring land prices mean that developers need to cram each acre with as many houses as possible to maintain their high profits and the result is that they are being built upwards instead of outwards, a hybrid of houses, flats and maisonettes, but they are becoming smaller still with minute gardens and parking spaces rather than garages while many forecast that the close density and sparse accommodation provided in some estates is creating the slums of the future.

SKDC appears to be intent on approving every housing application that comes its way, if not at first time of asking then certainly on appeal, because more homes mean more council tax which supports the authority’s high-employment-high-salary ethic, in this case an additional £60,000 or so a year, but does little for the appearance of the town which is fast becoming a dumping ground for every unwanted residential development, irrespective of style, suitability and space. The people of Bourne were therefore saying that enough is enough although the town council appeared to be powerless to act when unacceptable building developments are proposed, despite having a regular input into the planning process at Grantham. Their warnings over the Manning Road development were loud and clear but apparently no one had been listening. Councillors therefore claimed that they have been totally ignored over the issue and the strength of feeling has been summed up by one of them, Guy Cudmore (Bourne East), in a contribution to the Bourne Forum on Wednesday 20th February 2008:

Within ten years time, the quality of life in this town which we all love and which has induced many of us to stay here will be gone. The question will be asked, whither? The answer will be that persistent inner-city housing densities applied to a small market town will have brought inner-city problems. One cannot cram so many people all so closely together with no garden and nowhere to park without causing pressure and stress and conflict. Then we will remember councillors in the nineties and noughties have not stood up for this town in the face of vulturous speculative developers of dormitory accommodation aided and abetted in their lupine avarice by local planning officialdom.

Unfortunately, there are other similar sites around the town awaiting development and if this is a precursor of things to come, it does not auger well for the future appearance of Bourne and a decade hence, Councillor Cudmore’s predictions may well have become reality.

Once the Manning Road development was approved, Richard Edwards, planning director for Larkfleet Homes, told the Stamford Mercury: "Obviously we are very happy with the outcome because it is a scheme we have been involved with for the past 18 months. It is an important site which we hope to develop as soon as we can." (April 24th).

Others were less happy. The Mayor of Bourne, Councillor Shirley Cliffe, told the newspaper that she was disappointed by the decision. "We do not need any more housing, especially that amount. I believe we need more shops." Under the S106 agreement, Larkfleet is now required to pay half of the S106 contribution after the 15th house is completed with a further 25% after the 24th house is finished and the balance at the end of the development or two years from the commencement of the first house.

News report from The Local newspaper Friday 1st May 2009

REVISED MARCH 2015

See also

Housing in Bourne     Bourne Textile Services