Councillors on Babergh District Council’s Development Committee are being recommended to refuse a planning application on the current Lavenham Press site – because not enough homes affordable to local people would be built on it.
For a number of years, Babergh has been working closely with both the current owners of the site, off Water Street, and the developers Hopkins Homes to ensure that the competing demands of affordable housing, jobs and the protection of the conservation area are met. Lavenham Press plan to sell off their current site in order to relocate to a bigger plot on Melford Road in the same village.
“Babergh’s role has been one of the honest broker in trying to ensure that these needs are met for the benefit of the whole local community. Because of the need to protect the 47 jobs at Lavenham Press, we have not insisted that the developer make a contribution towards funding education projects and green spaces – as is usual for this type of development” explained Richard Watson, Babergh’s Head of Planning (Control).
“However, with over 1800 families on the Babergh Common Housing Register, one of our key service priorities is to ensure that as many affordable homes are built as possible on new developments. Babergh would usually aim to have between five and nine affordable homes on a development of this size, especially since Lavenham is such a high-cost area in which to live. Sadly, the developers have only proposed that two be built out of a total of 28 dwellings. That is just not fair to local people.”
Concerns about the lack of an appropriate number of affordable homes have also been raised by Lavenham Parish Council and the Suffolk Preservation Society. Many of the individual residents who have written objecting to the plans have also mentioned the need for more affordable housing on the site.
“If the recommendation is accepted, Babergh will redouble our longstanding efforts to try and arrive at a workable compromise that safeguards jobs, protects the unique beauty of Lavenham but also ensures that there are enough low-cost homes for local people” |