A residents’ group is again taking the Isle of Wight Council to court, yet again, over planning permission for hundreds of homes at West Acre Park in Ryde.
Greenfields (IOW) Ltd has filed legal action over County Hall’s consent for a 473-home development from Captiva Homes, claiming it is illegal, with concern over a lack of infrastructure and insufficient funds to complete necessary work still centre stage.
In September 2025, the council’s planning committee conditionally approved Captiva Homes’s revised West Acre Park project which includes commercial space, a doctor’s surgery and a cafe.
Before councillors made the decision, a committee report cited the ‘benefits associated with the delivery of housing, the creation of jobs, the provision of land for a new doctors’ surgery and the provision of public accessible areas of open space’.
Greenfields’ latest action comes after a previous court battle which reached the Court of Appeal and resulted in the quashing of a prior planning permission for development at West Acre Park.
Cllr Michael Lilley, Liberal Democrat representative for Ryde Appley and Elmfield, said:
“There have always been major concerns with the lack of road infrastructure with the West Acre Park application. I highlighted this to the planning committee at the meeting on 30th September.
“You have a major housing development which would be the largest such development on the whole Island in an area of increasing traffic, without proper road infrastructure planned or the money to pay for it.
Article continues below this advertisement “The Isle of Wight Council has spent to date fighting the Ryde Appley and Elmfield residents to the admitted tune of £150,000 excluding officer time (a case they lost), and now plan to spend further taxpayers’ money to defend a case due to continued flaws in the process. This is simply unacceptable.”
Responding to the fresh action, Captiva Homes’s CEO Iain Delaney said:
“We respect and empathise with community concerns around sustainability and impact on infrastructure arising from development and can only reiterate our commitment to make positive contributions in both areas.
“Our plans include: gifting of land to the NHS for a required Ryde health hub, a 12-hectare country park, fully funded highways junction upgrades, biodiversity net gain uplift and improved sustainable transport links.
“West Acre Park planning approval has now been granted locally on three separate occasions and has been reviewed at the High Court and Court of Appeal.
“The council’s failure to publish the final Section 106 agreement prior to the previous granting of permission has now been addressed, consent has been lawfully reissued, and we remain fully committed to starting work on site with the minimum delay and to delivering desperately needed homes for Islanders.”
The Isle of Wight Council has been contacted for comment.
Craptiva is just ruining the Island while getting rich fat bloated greedy developers concreting the Island.
Keep fighting, greenfields.
You cannot be serious!
You cannot tell me that these 473 homes will be built for
Island families.
Blah Blah Blah
All the houses at the bottom of the hill belonging to working families will be flooded
All the people who have suffered flood damage due to housing being built on unsuitable land, should sue the developers and the planners for criminal damage and losses
The island has been on the decline and collapse for good few years due to our government and council. Open your eyes for once and see.
At least Southern Water have some common sense. Captiva wanted to connect the sewage from the 473 new houses directly into the main sewage pipe that runs from the Apply car park storage tanks to the Sandown treatment plant. Southern Water refused due to spill and flooding risks and said that a 900m pumped sewage main needs to built from the site down to the Appley car park storage tanks so it can be transferred to Sandown in a controlled manner. This info is available for all to read on the IOW planning portal for the West Acre Park.