Social homes to be built in pub car park

Despite not one letter of support

Despite more than 100 letters of objection and not a single one supporting the idea, part of a pub’s car park in Plymouth is to be replaced by housing.

A third of the car park of the Windmill pub in Leigham will be taken up by seven new ‘social’ properties after city planners decided the urgent need for homes outweighes the loss of parking.

The council’s planning committee was told around 7,000 people are on Plymouth’s housing waiting list, including 400 living in temporary accommodation.

Now Plymouth Community Homes (PCH), the city’s largest social housing landlord, has permission to build on council-owned land . The space is not earmarked for development, but has been identified as a “windfall site” to speed up construction of affordable homes.

Over the next five years, 5,000 homes are expected to be built in the city to help address the housing crisis. But Cllr Maddi Bridgeman (Ind, Moor View) said the car park, to the west of Bampton Road, is the wrong site as it is in the heart of the community and well-used to access the Leigham Local Centre which has a community hall , range of shops, takeaway and pub. It also serves as a “park and stride” location to a local school and by workers at Derriford Hospital.

And she said it is a polling station for thousands of residents.

“Car parking all over Moor View is at a premium, with many residents’ disputes and this is recognised by the police. To lose over a third of the parking is a travesty.

“I appreciate that there is an unprecedented housing crisis in the city, but we have block of empty student accommodation and unfinished developments all around the city too and many redundant sites.

“This should not go ahead, once this space is gone, it’s gone forever.”

Cllr Kevin Sproston (Lab, Budshead) claimed that building the two bungalows and five terraced houses in a pub car park could lead to complaints from residents about noise and potential anti-social behaviour, and increase pressure on businesses.

But chair of the planning committee Bill Stevens (Lab, Devonport) said people did live near pubs and “the world did not come to an end”.

There are existing homes much closer to the pub than those proposed and planning officers were not aware of any complaints.

Conditions would be put in place to reduce sound inside the new homes and as the pub pre-dated the properties, the council would be unable to impose restrictions if there were complaints, said officers.

The committee was told that the site currently attracted fly-tipping and unauthorised parking of motorhomes.

White lines marking parking bays would be added under the new proposals to avoid misuse of the site, said Alex Graves, on behalf of PCH.

Regular observations by highways officers revealed a peak use of 64 cars, and 66 would be provided under the scheme, he said.

Bottle and clothes recycling bays would be removed as bottles are collected as part of the household recycling and there are clothes banks nearby, councillors were told.

Cllr Stevens said there is no perfect planning application.

“I would be worried if every time we see something that is not to our individual liking it was going to put our plan for homes at risk.

“The housing crisis is real, it is happening now, and although there are going to be negative aspects, the mitigation and assurances we have been given satisfy me in planning terms.”

The application was approved by eight votes to two.