Decision on 800 homes in AONB

Plans for 800 new homes which could have marked the start of “urban sprawl to Oxford” have been blocked.

Chiltern Hills Golf Club had proposed either 300 or 800 homes in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty across two separate planning applications on the same plot, lodged with Three Rivers District Council.

The land for the proposed homes, off Green Street, lies less than a kilometre from Chorleywood tube station.

Rob Morgan of Savills, on behalf of the applicant, said the proposal presents an “opportunity to find land” for housing which Three Rivers “undoubtedly” needs.

But at a planning committee meeting on Thursday, March 24, councillors and residents raised concerns over the lack of school spaces which “money can’t fix”, poor cycle connections for onward journeys and a loss of AONB land with habitats for dormouse and skylark.

Councillor Alison Wall (Con, Chorleywood North and Sarratt), who does not sit on the committee, said the application runs against green belt principles such as conserving the environment and preventing the villages from merging.

She said: “We have a precious six per cent of our district in the AONB.

“We have a moral and a legal duty to protect these areas.

“This development risks merging Chorleywood and Little Chalfont.

“A sense of being and a sense of place is so important for public health.”

Cllr Wall added if councillors had decided to approve the application, they risked achieving a “massive sprawling conurbation all the way to Oxford”.

Former teaching assistant Cllr Ciarán Reed (Con, Chorleywood North and Sarratt), who also does not sit on the committee, said: “This is not a sustainable development for our children.”

He said: “Schools in Chorleywood are at capacity.

“Unless they are going to provide a new school which we do not have the site for, then this application should be refused.”

Cllr Reed added the provision of cycling infrastructure is “welcomed” but there is “nowhere for cyclists to go” when they reach steep hills or the “narrow” A404.

Resident John Siden said the application represented an “overwhelming emphasis on housing against breaches of local, district and national planning policy” around protecting the green belt and AONBs.

“Some information [around conservation] is still not being provided by the developer,” he said.

“This is a strategic approach by the applicant to devise a scheme which is outside of policy.”

Council leader Sarah Nelmes (LD, Penn and Mill End), who sat on the March 23 committee, said: “I appreciate the public sentiments on this.

“The school capacity is a particular issue.

“It is difficult to go for a highways objection when Hertfordshire County Council has not raised an objection themselves.”

Cllr Nelmes said she would find it “very difficult” to support the application on AONB grounds.

The committee voted to refuse planning permission for both 800 and 300 homes unanimously.

Ahead of the decision, planning agent Rob Morgan said: “The site represents the opportunity to deliver housing and housing infrastructure in Chorleywood.

“It represents the first significant development in Chorleywood for a generation.”

Mr Morgan added new homes would help secure the “vitality” of the village in years to come.

“Some green belt and AONB land would be lost as a result, but this land is currently private and inaccessible,” he said.

The application for 800 homes would have created “new open space for young people”, the developer claimed.

Land opposite the site is under construction as an 18-hole golf course, with the first nine holes “nearing completion”.

Chiltern Hills Golf Club has applied to neighbouring Buckinghamshire Council to install a temporary clubhouse and “green plateau” for football playing pitches as an addition to the site.

The applicant promised “peppercorn rents for the Chorleywood Common Youth FC and Chorleywood Golf Club to use land on Chiltern Hills Golf Club”, which they said strengthens the case for 800 new homes.

Three Rivers District Council officers said because Buckinghamshire Council has not made its decision, this commitment is “speculative”.