Isle of Wight planners have been urged to “do the right thing” and reject a 127-home development facing a flood of objections.
County Hall has received over 60 letters criticising Tallulah Estates’ revised outline application for an estate next to Freshwater’s Camp Road.
They cite a devastating impact on wildlife, ‘horrendous’ traffic and a lack of infrastructure in the village.
The developer’s agent, Andrew White Planning Consultancy, previously said the homes will be 35% ‘affordable’ and designed to a high quality, with a range of unit types and sizes.
Submitted plans, which are due a decision on January 23rd, have been lodged after the Isle of Wight Council’s planning committee refused a previous proposal in November 2024.
Problems raised with the proposal include increased flood and pollution risks, further pressure on public services and drainage, its lack of ‘genuinely affordable’ homes, harmful impacts on the area’s landscape and worsening congestion and highway safety.
Freshwater resident Karen Ferris urged the council to halt the destruction of green spaces and beautiful views.
She said:
“There are plenty of Brownfield sites that should be developed. Stop the greed and think of the need. Houses need to be where there is work without the need to travel, where there is adequate infrastructure, shops, schools.
“We do not need more houses that will be empty for half the year. Please, please, please do the right thing and reject this application.”
Andrew Haisell, who lives on Camp Road, said:
“The amount of traffic onto Camp Road and neighbouring roads will be horrendous and these roads are insufficient to deal with this demand.
Article continues below this advertisement “Camp Road has many pinch points, insufficient pathways for pedestrians and was only ever built as a country lane for light traffic and pedestrian use.”
Other issues cited by the scheme’s opponents include a loss of agricultural land, dark sky degradation, archaeological concern and ecological damage in respect of habitat loss and species.
Clare Everett, of Freshwater’s New Village, said the application site is home to a wide variety of wildlife which the plans would have a “devastating impact” on.
“The types of wildlife I see includes badgers, foxes, field mice, frogs, toads, newts, bats, slow worms and a huge variety of insects including several different types of bees, butterflies, moths.”
Edward Nicholson, chair of the Campaign to Protect Rural England’s (CPRE)’s Isle of Wight branch, said:
“The application does not contain any information about how the scheme enhances the character of the area. It will result in loss of wider landscape views across towards Farringford and the wider views of the Downs from Camp Road, which is a key part of the character of the area.”
A spokesperson for Freshwater Parish Council said:
“The proposed development would add more vehicles into an already over-stressed situation, with no realistic spare capacity on the road for visitor, delivery and service parking.
“In practice this will push yet more cars onto the carriageway…obstructing visibility and narrowing the available road width for passing traffic.
“This will impede access for refuse collection, emergency services and large vehicles, and will materially worsen highway safety and residential amenity in and around Camp Road.”
A submission from the government’s natural environment adviser Natural England said insufficient information had been provided by the applicant.
The body also noted the Habitats Regulations Assessment (HRA) for the plans had been produced by the applicant rather than County Hall.
Freshwater South’s Empowering Islanders county councillor Becca Cameron said Natural England’s comments showed the ecological evidence base for the application is “currently inadequate”.
She said:
“While an authority may adopt an applicant-prepared HRA, doing so transfers full legal responsibility for any inaccuracies or omissions to the council itself.
“If the council adopts a flawed HRA, it leaves itself open to judicial review.”
The Andrew White Planning Consultancy statement supporting Tallulah Estates’ bid said there was an undeniable need for both market and affordable housing.
It said through a series of technical reports relating to highways matters, drainage, trees, ecology and biodiversity net gain it had been shown the development would not overwhelm local infrastructure nor cause material harm to the natural environment.
Concerns the council had in 2024 leading to the refusal of the previous application have been ‘fully and comprehensively addressed’, the consultancy said.
Consultation on application 25/01505/OUT closed on 28th November.
There are thousands of properties for sale on rightmove
why don’t the authorities purchase many of these properties
many of them have been on the market for a year+
Probably will get a good price.
Better than keep building rabbit hutches.
Fully agree
Iv just bought a house that’s been on the market for over 2 years
If this goes ahead it will show how corrupt this council is
Good luck with your property, at present many properties
are not selling.
Agree 100%. Utilise the properties already on the market and the Council should incentivise the conversion to housing of all the empty commercial properties on the island which se no longer viable due to the fact that our misguided chancellor fails to address the punitive business rates on local businesses. The mega online overseas companies undercut our shop prices and pay criminally minimal amounts of tax .
Its time the government woke up to this unfair imbalance.
Looks ridiculous hopefully thrown out.
Quite; there appears to be an unending swarm of people buying up local green spaces and then putting in planning requests. Green spaces were once sensibly left alone in order to absorb local run-off and to alleviate potential flooding. Presumaly the land in question would have been developed years ago if suitable.
High quality and affordable do not go together,badly built unaffordable shoeboxes they mean,if its more than 100 k its not affordable for many,and shared equity is a con,the doctors surgery is full,there is one private dentist and one nhs,which………..are full,but doubtless it will go ahead and get rubber stamped by our spineless,inept,useless council
because all they see is more council tax,and then still raise it and plead poverty,bunch of utter merchant bankers!
won’t affect me so they can get on and build
Moron.
If the council agrees this planning application then they all need to be ousted of office. We as an Island do not have the infrastructure or the capacity to allow more homes to be built ….if they do agree then there must be a clause setting a fee of at least £50k per property to allow for the Drs, Dentists (when we can get one) not to mention the ever struggling hospital and the crumbling roads. get a grip and stop the building