Land Adjacent Manor Farm
The original planning application below has been withdrawn.
A new planning application has been made and can be viewed here
Outline application for the erection of up to 7 dwellings with access to the public highway (all matters reserved except access) | Land Part OS 0114 Rugby Road Catthorpe Leicestershire
Contact from Developer via Website
Dear Mr. Fisher,
Please excuse the direct e-mail approach, but we are the applicants for the above referenced planning application on the land west of Manor Farm, and wanted to contact the Parish Council regarding our proposals.
We understand that there is a Parish Council meeting tomorrow evening to discuss the application. Regrettably, as we were only informed of this yesterday, and due to existing commitments, neither I nor our Managing Director will be able to attend said meeting.
We would, however, welcome the opportunity to meet with you and the rest of the Parish Council, plus any local residents who also wish to attend, to run through the proposals in detail and take the opportunity to answer any questions which you or your Parishioners may have on the proposals.
If the above is of interest, please would you be so kind as to reply, setting out a suitable date, time and location where we could meet to run through the proposals and respond directly.
Thank you in advance,
Yours sincerely,
Paul Johnson
Response From Ray Fisher to Paul Johnson
Good Morning Paul, firstly it is important that I remain impartial and take a balanced approach to the views of the village.
As you confirm you are the applicants for the above mentioned planning application, you state that you would like to discuss the proposal with Catthorpe Parish Meeting perhaps this would have been better done before the application was made so that it could take into account the views of the village rather than the short time left in the run up to Christmas.
Whilst it may well be regrettable that you only heard of todays Parish Meeting on Wednesday, I would like to point out that we only heard about the application a couple of days earlier and as the village only has 21days from the date of the notice which was the 29th November leaving us now only until the 19th December for the village to decide if it wants to object. The timing of the application not only gives us a short time for consultation but has also lead to some distress in the village in the run up to the festive season particularly for those who have properties bordering the development, for those in this situation have had their Christmas somewhat ruined because of the uncertainties involved.
Whilst it may only be 7 houses on this occasion the planning notice states “MAJOR DEVELOPMENT AFFECTING THE CHARACTER AND APPEARANCE OF THE VILLAGE IN A CONSERVATION AREA” and as such as a village we need to decide if we want further enlargement of what is a very small community.
I was Chair of CPM when the first housing development of Francis Jackson homes were built on the East side of the village, where as far as I remember a community orchard was set aside for the dwellings involved, indeed Brendan Wards house is still called Orchard House, this development started off with a lot more properties involved that were reduced to get the support of the village only for us now to find 4 dwellings have been approved on the “Orchard” with conveniently room left for further houses in the future. During the time from when the houses were built to the new planning approval FJH let the “Orchard” fall into an overgrown shambles and an eyesore for the village for many years.
Within the curtilage of the village not including Catthorpe Manor and the properties there, I believe there were less than 30 houses prior to the first phase of FJH of 7 properties with the already approved Orchard development of 4 houses brings the total so far to 11 with the proposed development taking it up to 18 or more than half of the original village properties.
So one big concern for the village is not only the proposed development but where else in the village will we find future “Major Developments within a Conservation area” perhaps more on the Orchard and on the South side of Rugby Road which we would totally unacceptable. We are of course fully aware of the National need for more housing and the responsibility of local county and district councils to provide their housing obligations.
Bearing in mind that Frances Jackson have stated that they would like to consult with the parishioners and have a question and answers session and bearing in mind the poor timing of the application I suggest that if you really want to consult with the village with very little time left in the run up to Christmas that the Application is withdrawn so they we can arrange a meeting in the new year and perhaps at this time you could give some consideration to giving something back to village to support your application. Perhaps by ways of supporting the Church Funds and Traffic Calming measures which will now be of more importance with up to another 22 cars going in and out of the village from the new homes.