Plans for up to 750 new homes approved

Up to 750 new homes will be built in Staffordshire under plans for a major new development.

South Staffordshire Council's planning committee unanimously granted outline consent for the development, on land to the east and west side of the A449, near Penkridge, at a meeting on Tuesday.

The homes will include a minimum of 40 units of specialist older people's housing and facilities including a primary school and nursery and a community hub, with commercial, retail and food and drink space and a park.

The application, by developers St Phillips, is the largest part of wider plans of up to 1,100 homes on a 172 acre (70 hectare) area to the north of Penkridge.

The council received 10 public responses to the latest application, with concerns raised that the new homes, plus additional buildings and facilities was "excessive for a semi-rural location like Penkridge".

Access to the site will be via two four-arm roundabouts on the A449 and one priority junction with Lower Drayton Lane, a planning committee report said.

Councillor Victor Kelly questioned whether the two islands were a "bit close together".

"The junction where you've got industrial units, a bus route, a play barn, BT communications installers as well as other units, that island would be better served at that junction," he said.

"I'm not against this application, all I want is the betterment for the villagers of Penkridge.

"There's no active travel route from the junction and bridlepath from Lower Drayton Lane to the first island, which is a concern."

Amrit Piechocki, from Staffordshire Highways, said the spacing of the roundabouts was in line with standards in design and acted as "traffic calming features".

"On the active travel route to the north, there wasn't anything being proposed originally so we have got footway provision now," she said.

This news was gathered by the Local Democracy Reporting Service, which covers councils and other public service organisations.

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