Plans for 154 homes approved despite parking shortfall
Plans for 154 homes near the M4 have been approved despite concerns about a shortfall in visitor parking.Planning and highways officers were happy with the proposals of the second half of Mulgrove Farm Village, near Bristol, despite a shortfall of three visitor parking spaces compared with the requirements under South Gloucestershire Council policy.The site on former agricultural land will include 57 affordable homes.Echoing concerns raised by Stoke Gifford Parish Council, South Gloucestershire councillor Neel Das Gupta said while the shortfall "may seem minor on paper" even "small shortfalls can have long-term consequences".
He said the pressure on parking at the estate, which is north of the railway line between Stoke Gifford bypass and the B4427 Old Gloucester Road, could lead to overspill and blocked pavements."While three spaces might seem negligible, it could very well be the difference between a well-functioning neighbourhood and one where parking is a daily frustration for residents," he added.According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, parish councillor Andrew Shore asked for the plans to be deferred and requested developers Wain Homes to remove one or two houses to make more room for visitor spaces.
'Highly accessible'
Highways officer Myles Kidd said they were required to be flexible with their policies and the first half of Mulgrove Farm Village, which is nearly complete, had 20 more visitor spaces than required.John Rhys-Davies, of Wain Homes, told councillors there were no more spaces available without compromising the wider design objectives of creating attractive, well-landscaped, pedestrian-friendly streets.He said: "The site is highly accessible. There are many bus services, walking and cycle links and it is a short distance from Parkway Station."There are 154 much-needed homes, of which 57 are affordable, which is 20 more than we are required to provide under the section 106 [developers' contributions] agreement."
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
BBC News
32 minutes ago
- BBC News
Sirius Academy North in Hull closed to most pupils due to flooding
A secondary school in Hull is closed to most students due to a water leak, which has resulted in Academy North, in Hall Road, confirmed it was closed on Monday for Year 7, 8, 9 and said the leak happened over the weekend. It added the building remained open for Year 11 students, which would allow them "to prepare for their last run of exams".The BBC has contacted the academy for further information. The academy also posted that phone lines were down. Listen to highlights from Hull and East Yorkshire on BBC Sounds, watch the latest episode of Look North or tell us about a story you think we should be covering here.
Telegraph
38 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Daniel Levy's right-hand woman Donna Cullen to leave Tottenham
Daniel Levy's right-hand woman Donna Cullen has stepped down from the Tottenham Hotspur board and is to leave the club in the first of a number of anticipated summer changes. Cullen has been on the Tottenham board since 2006 and has been considered Levy's closest confidant in recent years. A trustee of the Tottenham Hotspur Foundation, Cullen has received criticism from fans over recent years as part of the protests against Levy. The news is yet to be confirmed by Tottenham, but staff have been informed of the decision in an email that has been seen by Telegraph Sport.
The Guardian
40 minutes ago
- The Guardian
Keir Starmer refuses to set date for UK to spend 3% of GDP on defence
Keir Starmer has refused to give a date for the UK to spend at least 3% of GDP on defence, saying he would not indulge in 'performative fantasy politics', as he prepared to launch the government's strategic defence review. Speaking at a defence facility in Scotland, the prime minister said his commitment to hit 2.5% of GDP on defence spending from 2027 showed he was serious about the issue, but that he could not go further without fiscal certainty. 'I am not, as the prime minister of Labour government, going to make a commitment as to the precise date until I can be sure precisely where the money is coming from, how we can make good on that commitment, because I don't believe in performative fantasy politics, and certainly not on defence and security,' he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. Pressed again on the date, Starmer said: 'We had a commitment for 2.5% by the end of this parliament. We pulled that right forward to 2027. We showed that when we say there's a new era of the defence and security of our country, is our first priority – as it is – that we meant it. We take the same approach to 3%. 'But I'm not going to indulge in the fantasy politics of simply plucking dates from the air until I'm absolutely clear that I can sit here in an interview with you and tell you exactly how that's going to work.' The defence review will say Britain must be ready to fight a war in Europe or the Atlantic, though it is not expected to promise immediate increases in the size of the armed forces to deal with the threat. The 130-page document will call for a move to 'war-fighting readiness' to deter Russian aggression in Europe and increases in stockpiles of arms and support equipment, some of which currently may only last days in a crisis. Asked about this, Starmer said: 'We have to recognise the world has changed, and if the world has changed, we need to be ready. What I would say, by way of reassurance, is if you want to deter conflict, then the best way to do that is to prepare for conflict.' Questioned on whether this could involve, for example, British troops being sent to defend attacks on countries adjoining Russia, Starmer replied: 'I very much hope not. And in order to make sure that that isn't the case, we need to prepare. But we cannot ignore the threat that Russia poses. 'We've seen what's happened in Ukraine just over three and a half, three years ago, those tanks rolled across a border, something I think all of us thought we wouldn't really see in our lifetimes – the invasion of a European country. Russia has so shown in recent weeks that it's not serious about peace. We have to be ready.' The review is not expected to contain any additional spending commitments. The defence secretary, John Healey, acknowledged on Sunday that any plans to increase the size of the British army, at its smallest for 300 years, would have to wait until after the next election. Speaking to the BBC, Healey said there had been '15 years of a recruitment and retention crisis in our armed forces' as he acknowledged that the size of the army had fallen to 70,860, below the government's target of 73,000.
