Land at Craythorne
Road, Stretton

We are proposing to build up to 430 new homes, including affordable homes, fully compliant with East Staffordshire Borough Council policy.

We are proposing a range of house types, tenures and sizes to suit local housing need with most homes being two-storeys tall.

We are proposing to create two main vehicle accesses including pedestrian and cycle access points from Craythorne Road.

Car parking spaces including reduced mobility and visitor spaces will comply with East Staffordshire Borough Council’s Parking Standards Supplementary Planning Document.

Contributions to offset any potential impact on local services and facilities will be provided as part of any Section 106 agreement with East Staffordshire Borough Council.

As the developer, we have an obligation to produce a Construction Management Plan, which will be submitted before any construction starts on site for approval by East Staffordshire Borough Council. This document outlines how the construction process will be managed and will stipulate the specific times and routes construction vehicles are allowed to enter and leave the site. We will use the strategic network as far as possible to limit any impact on the local roads and residents.

It is not possible to give an exact price range of these homes at the current time. However, if and when the homes come forward, they will be comparable in price to new build properties within the local area at that time – this excludes affordable housing.

We are proposing a mix of homes ranging from 2 through to 4 bed homes with most homes being predominantly 2 with potential for some 2 ½ storey. Based on the feedback from the public consultation we will discuss with East Staffordshire Council the potential local need for bungalows.

Currently there are no footpaths on Craythorne Road but as part of our development we would like to improve connectivity where we can so at the southern access we are proposing to tie into the existing access at the Bitham Lane junction and are also considering a crossing point, subject to further discussions with the Highways authority. We are also investigating - having received feedback from members of the community at our Public Exhibition and via the feedback form on our website – potential opportunities of improving footway provision along Craythorne Road or within our site and these discussions are ongoing with the County Council.

We are discussing the proposed outline application proposals with East Staffordshire Council, and they can advise on local retail need.

We are currently discussing with the County Council the need for a primary school site and await their feedback. If a Primary School is needed this land will be transferred to the County Council for them to manage and build a new Primary School in the future If the School site is not needed, we will review alternative uses that would be appropriate for this part of the site based on feedback received to date from the public consultation.

We are proposing to connect to the south of the site. There is an existing fowl sewer that runs along Bitham Lane. We have a manhole reference from Severn Trent Water, and they have confirmed that the manhole (SK24267101) can accommodate total flows from the site without the need for capacity improvements and this location will be acceptable to them.

In terms of school place provision from primary through to sixth form, we have looked at this from existing capacity, pupil numbers forecasted and pupil numbers going down. We have engaged with the Staffordshire County Council, as the education authority and we are waiting for their response. Although birth rates are currently dropping, this does change over time and the need for a new Primary School site may be needed in the future.

We have done a suite of ecological surveys, which are ongoing within the current survey season. The site largely comprises of farmed arable land, so the ecology surveys of the site have focused on the boundaries of the site the boundary of the site with the adjacent golf course. All the necessary legal requirements for protected species , have all been thoroughly considered and appropriate mitigation provided within the outline planning application proposals. breeding bird surveys have been undertaken, which covers ground nesting species as well as the typical hedgerow species. These surveys require a number of visits over the breeding bird season, so these remain underway within the current survey season.

The NPPF (2024) Glossary definition of affordable housing for planning purposes is: Affordable housing: housing for sale or rent, for those whose needs are not met by the market (including housing that provides a subsidised route to home ownership and/or is for essential local workers); and which complies with one or more of the following definitions 90:

A. Social Rent: meets all of the following conditions:

• the rent is set in accordance with the Government's rent policy for Social Rent;
• the landlord is a registered provider; and
• it includes provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision.

B. Other affordable housing for rent: meets all of the following conditions: (a) the rent is set in accordance with the Government's rent policy for Affordable Rent, or is at least 20% below local market rents (including service charges where applicable); (b) the landlord is a registered provider, except where it is included as part of a Build to Rent scheme (in which case the landlord need not be a registered provider); and (c) it includes provisions to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for the subsidy to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision. For Build to Rent schemes affordable housing for rent is expected to be the normal form of affordable housing provision (and, in this context, is known as Affordable Private Rent).

C. Discounted market sales housing: is that sold at a discount of at least 20% below local market value. Eligibility is determined with regard to local incomes and local house prices. Provisions should be in place to ensure housing remains at a discount for future eligible households.

D. Other affordable routes to home ownership: is housing provided for sale that provides a route to ownership for those who could not achieve home ownership through the market. It includes shared ownership, relevant equity loans, other low cost homes for sale (at a price equivalent to at least 20% below local market value) and rent to buy (which includes a period of intermediate rent). Where public grant funding is provided, there should be provisions for the homes to remain at an affordable price for future eligible households, or for any receipts to be recycled for alternative affordable housing provision, or refunded to Government or the relevant authority specified in the funding agreement.

⁹⁰ This definition should be read in conjunction with relevant policy contained in the Affordable Homes Update Written Ministerial Statement published on 24 May 2021. As noted in footnote 31, however, the 25% minimum delivery requirement for First Homes no longer applies.

All available publicly documented mapping states that Craythorne Road in Stretton has not been renamed to Craythorne Lane. There is also no change in East Staffordshire Borough Council records to change Craythorne Road Craythorne Lane.

We are happy for evidence to be provided to support the change in name and we can review further with the relevant Council.

We are proposing to connect to the south of the site. There is an existing fowl sewer that runs along Bitham Lane. We have a manhole reference from Severn Trent Water, and they have confirmed that the manhole (SK24267101) can accommodate total flows from the site without the need for capacity improvements and this location will be acceptable to them.

As the developer, we have an obligation to produce a Construction Management Plan, which will be submitted before any construction starts on site for approval by East Staffordshire Borough Council. This document outlines how the construction process will be managed and will stipulate the specific times and routes construction vehicles are allowed to enter and leave the site. We will use the strategic network as far as possible to limit any impact on the local roads and residents.

As part of our Transport Assessment, we look at various scenarios, different years in terms of whether it’s the opening year or for the operational year and that includes all base line existing traffic, that is grossed up to those future years and also includes traffic that is generated by committed Local Plan sites and any developments that are committed over the next 3 years. This process meeting national guidance for assessing development traffic. So, all future likely development traffic that is anticipated to be generated by other developments will be included as part of the assessment in the Transport Assessment.

As part of the design of the two proposed accesses, we have undertaken vehicle tracking exercises using the largest refuge vehicle within Staffordshire’s arsenal and have demonstrated that those vehicles can turn in and out of the proposed two points of access. The accesses have been designed to Staffordshire’s Design Guidance. Potential trip generation during peak hours would be 229 two way vehicle trips during the morning and 215 vehicle trips during the PM peak, which equates to 4 vehicle trips per minute out of both accesses.

In line with standard practice, we monitor residential traffic at its peak along with traffic on the existing network during the mornings and evenings broadly between 8am-9am in the morning and peaks again around 5pm – 6pm. These are typically the peak hours we need to assess from in accordance with the highways authority requirements.

The estimated (vehicle) trip generation of the proposed development has been derived from TRICS®. TRICS® is the system of trip generation analysis for the UK and Ireland. The system allows users to establish potential levels of trip generation for their development scenarios using a series of database filtering processes (e.g. number of dwellings) and is widely used by transport planning consultants and local authorities (the latter of which use TRICS® to audit Transport Assessments). Using TRICS®, our estimated trip generation for the proposed development (based on 430 homes being delivered) suggests 229 vehicles (arrivals + departures) would be generated during the weekday AM peak hour and 215 during the PM peak hour (i.e. the hours when traffic generation is at its greatest for residential developments). The filtering process we have used and the resulting trip rates (which the highway authority has agreed with) from which we have derived the estimated trip generation for the proposed development will be presented as an Appendix in the Transport Assessment that is submitted with the planning application.

Currently there are no footpaths on Craythorne Road but as part of our development we would like to support improvements to connectivity where we can so at the southern access we are proposing to tie into the existing access at the Bitham Lane junction. We are also investigating - having received feedback from members of the community at our Public Exhibition – potential opportunities of improving footway provision along Craythorne Road or within our site and this will form an ongoing discussion with the Highways Authority.

Bloor Homes has an option agreement with the landowner.

When the outline planning application is submitted to East Staffordshire Borough Council there will be publicity regarding the submission of the planning application and neighbours to the site will be formerly notified and notices put up around the site. There is then a period of consultation of 30 days once the application is registered for any party to comment via the Council’s website. This formal consultation takes place as part of the planning application process by East Staffordshire District Council.

The site is part of the Burton area, so the percentage of affordable housing is 33%, which is in accordance with Local Plan policy. Please see the above question and answer that explains the definition of affordable housing, which also includes local people who can’t afford to buy a home locally on the open market.

It depends on the SuDS feature as different SuDS need different maintenance and different schedules but if as an example we are looking at basins/ponds and swales (shallow ditch). A swale would be vegetated grass so it would be mowed on a regular basis, check that inlets and outlets are not blocked on a monthly to six monthly basis with more frequent checks in the winter with more heavy rainfall. A basin/pond because they hold slow moving water you tend to get more silt that falls out of suspensions so they will have annual checks to make sure they still have the space for the attenuation storage.

Yes we are aware of this. As the site is an agricultural field at the moment there is no formal drainage so when there is heavy rainfall that water basically runs down the slope which to the north is Craythorne Road and to the south is Bitham Lane. Should the site be developed and as part of our strategy we would be putting in the formal drainage will effectively remove that water as a source for running on to Craythorne Road.

We are investigating where there is potential to have passing bays or appropriate widening on Craythorne Road.

Our distribution exercise (part of the Transport Assessment) shows where potential development traffic will be routeing, and we are in liaison with Staffordshire highways to establish what measures they have proposed to deal with existing problems on the network and along Bitham Lane and at Church Road.

The starting point is the ongoing engagement with Staffordshire County Council, as the education authority. Should the school be needed the detail of that including the number of car parking spaces would follow, through discussion with the County Council as the education authority and through the design stage of any planning application that would follow, should outline planning be granted. If a Primary School is not needed we would need to review further in terms of appropriate alternative uses and taken on board the public consultation feedback in considering and alternative use. The outline application proposes up to 430 dwellings and this will not change.

Should outline planning permission be granted, the house type detail will be considered at the reserved matters planning stage. If the site does come forward this will be based on discussions with the council and will meet policy requirements in terms of number of parking spaces per home, which depends on the number of bedrooms etc.

We are at the start of the process and an outline planning application has yet been submitted. Once the outline planning application is submitted it will go through a determination process. We are proposing to submit our outline application in late summer, and we anticipate a potential determination within 2026. If the site is approved in 2026 this would be followed by the detailed planning stage including discharge of planning conditions which would take us through into 2027, following this there will be site preparation, and the delivery of homes will commence around late 2027/28.

There would be an opportunity in the future to buy off plan should the site gain planning consent and when the construction of the site starts.

We are proposing there are two vehicle assess points off Craythorne Road, which can also be used by emergency vehicles.

This is to be determined however, it is anticipated that potential tenants would from within East Staffordshire Borough Council and those on the housing waiting list – so residents local to East Staffordshire.

We will not be uploading the suite of documents supporting the outline planning application onto the consultation website. However, we will post on the homepage of the website, a link to the council’s planning portal with the application reference number to enable people to view the documents and comment online via the District Council’s website. We will also notify anyone who has registered to be kept up to date via email with the Council’s website link and the application reference number.

In terms of our boundary and the golf course, if there is overlapping in the southwestern corner that area of the site is not proposed for any kind of built development.

The golf course is not part of our development, so we are unable to comment on this.

This could form part of the S106 agreement between Bloor Homes and the Council for potential works on the highway or it may form part of another package of measures that is implemented as part of the travel plan for the site. This will be something we will discuss with the Highways authority to determine the appropriateness.

Attenuation means attenuation basin which is a drainage pond designed to slow the passage of water from surface runoff to drainage systems during heavy rainfall. It temporarily holds water and gradually releases it to prevent flooding. This helps manage stormwater effectively and reduces the risk of flooding in urban areas.

The specific layout of the homes is not determined at this stage. The outline application will just identify the areas proposed for housing within the site. Typically, we would look to back on to the existing properties, with the back gardens of the new homes. We would also meet design requirements in terms of overlooking distances to retain privacy for existing residents on Bitham Lane.

The emergency vehicle access off Bitham Lane will typically have a keyed bollard at the end of the pedestrian and cycle access which the emergency services will have access to. The likelihood of that route being used for emergency vehicle use will be very rare, however it is available as necessary.

We will take on board where appropriate feedback that is provided from the public consultation. We will still continue with the submission of the outline planning application.

There could be an opportunity for local residents to have a priority purchase window should the site gain planning consent and when construction starts.

A suite of reports will be sent in as part of the planning application and these will be available from the council’s planning portal.

The purpose of the sustainable drainage features (for surface water) and our surface water strategy is to capture all of the runoff from the site so that we don’t increase flood risk either on or off the site. In terms of raising the levels the finish floor levels themselves will be determined at the detailed design stage but generally building regulations say that they are raised above existing ground levels anyway just to mitigate against residual flood risk as a precaution, but we are not talking houses on stilts or anything like that.

Bloor Homes are only looking to bring forward the land shown as part of the consultation proposals.

This is a discussion between the landowner and farmer and therefore it is not something we can comment on.

We don’t own the land between Cross Lane and the site therefore any new entry road cannot be considered.

As part of this stage in the pre-application process we are looking at existing facilities and access to those existing facilities, particularly access to doctors’ surgery and opening hours of those surgeries whilst looking at other facilities including dentists. The expectation particularly around doctors’ surgeries is that we would be asked to make a financial contribution to support additional places and that would be secured through what is known as a S106 legal agreement between Bloor and the council to ensure contributions are made should there be a need for additional capacity particularly around doctors.

This will be dependent on when the planning application is submitted and registered with the Council. Once the planning application is registered there will be a period of consultation of 30 days. There will be publicity regarding the planning application, neighbours to the site will be formerly notified and notices put up around the site.

The starting point is the Councils Local Plan, and the housing need that is identified in that plan and the Neighbourhood Plan follows the Local Plan in 2016. The national policy has changed where the housing requirements is greater in a number of local authorities across the country, with includes East Staffordshire, so there is now a higher housing number and there is an intention from government to deliver significant new housing, and they refer to the target of 1.5 million new homes over this parliament. As a consequence, how do they do that is by identifying local authority areas to deliver new housing. There is a greater housing need now than there was in 2015/16 and East Staffordshire have existing sites and brownfield land that they have already and are looking to deliver housing on those sites but there is a need to bring forward green field sites on the edge of existing settlements and then it is a question of where should that housing be delivered in the context of existing settlements and its existing infrastructure and provision which directs housing towards more sustainable locations.

Part of the consideration of that is looking at individual sites and agricultural land we have here and that is taking into account what would be both the councils consideration of the site through the Local Plan policy but also in the context of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which is a material consideration of the determining of any planning application , so it would be looking at weighing up the loss of agricultural land against the housing need and significantly boosting the supply of housing.

A full traffic management survey has been completed and covers a 2 week period, including junction monitoring at peak hours. Where there is the greatest impact on the network our surveys have covered that, to establish a worse case traffic scenario which we are undertaking at present.

The starting point is the Councils Local Plan, and the housing need that is identified in that plan and the Neighbourhood Plan follows the Local Plan in 2016. The national policy has changed where the housing requirements is greater in a number of local authorities across the country, with includes East Staffordshire, so there is now a higher housing number and there is an intention from government to deliver significant new housing, and they refer to the target of 1.5 million new homes over this parliament. As a consequence, how do they do that is by identifying local authority areas to deliver new housing. There is a greater housing need now than there was in 2015/16 and East Staffordshire have existing sites and brownfield land that they have already and are looking to deliver housing on those sites but there is a need to bring forward green field sites on the edge of existing settlements and then it is a question of where should that housing be delivered in the context of existing settlements and its existing infrastructure and provision which directs housing towards more sustainable locations.

Part of the consideration of that is looking at individual sites and agricultural land we have here and that is taking into account what would be both the councils consideration of the site through the Local Plan policy but also in the context of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which is a material consideration of the determining of any planning application , so it would be looking at weighing up the loss of agricultural land against the housing need and significantly boosting the supply of housing.

We are considering any off-site improvements with the highway authority.

This depends on if they are adopted by STW, if they are not adopted it could potentially be the council, or a third party employed purely to come and maintain them. This will be confirmed at the detailed design stage.

No Bloor Homes do not have an option on the former golf course.

All surveys were commissioned by Bloor Homes.

Beacon Road is not near our site boundary. Our site is bounded by Craythorne Road and Bitham Lane. The land between the western boundary of the site and Beacon Road is not controlled by Bloor Homes.

Yes we are aware of the ditches on Craythorne Road. As the site is an agricultural field at the moment there is no formal drainage so when there is heavy rainfall the water basically runs down the slope which to the north is Craythorne Road and to the south is Bitham Lane. Should the site be developed and as part of our strategy we would be putting in the formal drainage which will effectively remove that water as a source for getting on to Craythorne Road.

Yes we are aware of the ditches on Craythorne Road. As the site is an agricultural field at the moment there is no formal drainage so when there is heavy rainfall the water basically runs down the slope which to the north is Craythorne Road and to the south is Bitham Lane. Should the site be developed and as part of our strategy we would be putting in the formal drainage which will effectively remove that water as a source for getting on to Craythorne Road.

Sustainable drainage (also known as Sustainable Drainage Systems or SuDS) refers to a natural approach to managing rainwater runoff, mimicking how water would naturally drain from a site. Instead of quickly diverting water away through pipes, SuDS aim to manage water locally, reducing flood risk, improving water quality, and enhancing the environment.

It depends on the SuDS feature as different SuDS need different maintenance and different schedules but if as an example we are looking at basins/ponds and swales (shallow ditch). A swale would be vegetated grass so it would be mowed on a regular basis, check that inlets and outlets are not blocked on a monthly to six monthly basis with more frequent checks in the winter with more heavy rainfall. A basin/pond because they hold slow moving water you tend to get more silt that falls out of suspensions so they will have annual checks to make sure they still have the space for the attenuation storage.

Maintenance depends on if they are adopted by STW, if they are not adopted it could potentially be the council, or a third party employed purely to come and maintain them. This will be confirmed at the detailed design stage.

No as headlight glare from vehicles generated by our site would be no different to that seen on Craythorne Road currently.

The internal estate road would be designed to standards. A 20mph speed limit would be in situ on the development and the roads designed so that rat-running and speeding through the development are not attractive propositions.