Vistry Southern are working in partnership with Abri to share their emerging vision and proposed detailed design with you ahead of the submission of an application for the approval of reserved matters. Reserved matters is the next stage after an outline planning permission has been granted and goes into further detail on the appearance, access, landscaping, layout and scale of the development. The parcel of land to the south of Locks Heath shopping village was allocated for residential development in the Local Plan adopted in 2023 and benefits from outline planning permission for 70 dwellings.
Vistry group are the UK’s leading provider of affordable mixed tenure homes. Vistry are working in partnership with Abri and are responsible for managing design and coordinating the build of this development.
Their purpose as a responsible developer is to work in partnership to deliver sustainable homes, communities, and social value, leaving a lasting legacy of places people love.
Vistry’s Strategic Priorities include:
Abri’s central mission is to create thriving communities and empower lives. Abri’s role in the development is to manage the homes once they have been built. They work with partners to enhance social mobility and provide opportunities and resources in the communities and where they work.
They remain vigilant about their position as a housing provider to tackle climate change. Abri want their impact to be positive and have outlined a road to net-zero and are on their way to decarbonising the homes they own.
Abri are a not for profit company in which means they reinvest any money they make back into building more homes and helping communities.
The site was granted outline consent for 70 dwellings in March 2023. Thereby establishing the principle of development. The site was allocated by the Council under Policy HA09 of the Fareham Local Plan (rolling forward policy H11 of the previous part 2 plan). The proposal adheres and complies with site specific criteria set out in the policy
The outline planning consent imposed a number of conditions. Conditions 1 required the submission of an application for approval of the layout, appearance, scale, and landscaping of development (referred to as ‘reserved matters’).
The outline planning consent was issues in conjunction with a legal agreement showing the following obligations.
Locks Heath Shopping Village lies to the immediate north of the site. It possesses a wealth of shops and services including a pub, convenience stores (Iceland, Waitrose), comparison retail, restaurants / cafes / take-aways, gym, pharmacy, dental surgery, community centre, library and youth centre.
The immediate area benefits a network of footpaths and cycleways, offering excellent permeability. The shopping village is connected to local bus routes.
Opportunities to replace poor quality trees and isolated specimens as well as ecological opportunities and constraints have been identified as follows.
The landscaping chosen will be visible all year round. The proposal incorporates a landscaped perimeter that will motion an ecological corridor connection with the woodland parcels.
The site will have a 5m corridor along the northern and eastern edge with appropriate buffers to retained trees.
Through the pre-application stages, a robust landscape and ecology led strategy was agreed.
The retained trees, supplemented by new planting will create a native setting as well as delivering biodiversity and climate change resilience through shading, infiltration and regulation of micro-climate .
To compensate the loss of woodland on site, new lowland priority habitat meadow will be created on a receptor site in the Borough.
The proposal has evolved from an illustrative plan at the outline stage and is informed from pre-application advice from the Council and feedback from technical assessments.
The concept plan draws everything together to arrive at the following proposal. It is important to stress that the proposal is still evolving, and your feedback will influence the form and content of any planning application.
A high resolution version of the concept plan can be downloaded here
(Click to enlarge)
The proposal is biased towards family homes with the majority being of 2- and 3-bedroom houses. This mix reflects the local needs in the Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment (SHLAA).
The proposed homes are 2-storey in height and include a combination of semi-detached, detached, and short terrace houses. The dwelling sizes range from 55.9sqm to 106.8sqm.
S106 tenure would comprise a mixture of affordable rented and shared ownership accommodation.
In terms of materials, brick beneath tiled roofs has been employed. This is consistent with the local area.
The site will include the provision of 133 car parking spaces.
The site is in a sustainable location next to the Locks Heath Shopping Village and near public transport links so future residents need to be less reliant upon car trips.
We will consider all feedback to see how our proposal can be improved or otherwise address issues which will be revised in the content of the forthcoming application for the approval of reserved matters.
We will aim to submit the application in early autumn and there will be a further opportunity to comment on the application once formally submitted.
Subject to timely approval, Vistry would anticipate construction starting in Spring / Summer 2025.
You feedback is valuable to us and will be taken into consideration when we finalise out plans ahead of submitting a reserved matters application to Fareham Borough Council.
Should you have any comments, please contact us.
We will consider all of the feedback received to see if our proposal can be improved or otherwise address issues through the form of content of the planning revised matters application. The consultation will close on the 9th September 2024 (midnight) so please provide your thoughts before then.
For more information about this project please contact:
Chapman Lily Planning Limited
Tel: 01929 553818