Rural group concerned over plans for 18 new affordable homes in Greatham

The Hartlepool Rural Neighbourhood Plan was adopted in December 2018 to help guide future plans for the development of areas such as Hart, Elwick, Dalton Piercy and Greatham.

Since then the four parish councils for those areas continue to work together through the Hartlepool Rural Neighbourhood Plan Group to monitor the plan and its adherence, and have raised concerns over plans to develop new homes in Greatham.

They are one of a number of groups objecting to plans for 18 new homes at Hill View, which are due to go before the council planning committee on Wednesday.

As part of the plans, submitted by Hartlepool Borough Council, all 18 properties would be owned and managed by the local authority through the choice-based lettings system.

The site would consist of 100% affordable rent properties.

Rural plan group chair Brian Walker, in a letter ahead of the meeting, said it will be a test of the rural neighbourhood plan and whether rural communities will be listened to.

He argues Greatham does not need more affordable homes, with a development for 36 properties already well underway in the village.

He said: “Six years hard work consultations, surveys, examination and referendum later, Hartlepool Rural Neighbourhood Plan was made and became part of the planning framework for the borough of Hartlepool.

“Or so was thought until an application for 18 council houses in the village of Greatham became a test of whether smaller communities are going to be listened to.

“Other villages in the Rural Plan area really need affordable homes, so why has Greatham, which doesn’t, been selected?”

The letter also noted although council housing strategies identify the need for more homes in the Rural West area, where Greatham and other villages are located, it should not be provided at this site.

He added: “The burden of providing that affordable housing is however being directed to a village where about 50% of the 450 homes are already rented and lies in the southern extremity of the ward.

“A community where villagers aspiring to own their own homes are frequently forced to look outside their own community.

“The Rural Neighbourhood Plan identified the varied needs of each village and allocated land within those villages to serve their needs.

“We now face those sites being stolen from us to meet urban needs.”

The letter notes Hartlepool Rural Neighbourhood Plan (HRNP) allocates this site in Greatham between Hill View and Saltaire Terrace for 12 houses.

However a council planning report ahead of the meeting notes this number is just an ‘approximation’ and states the plans are recommended for approval.

It said: “The Council’s Planning Policy section has advised that having considered the proposed site layout…it is deemed that in this instance the proposed number of dwellings is acceptable in principle.”

Earlier this year representatives from the Hartlepool Rural Neighbourhood Plan Working Group gave a presentation to the council planning committee detailing their ‘gateway to the future’ in the town.

A decision will be made on the latest proposals at the planning committee meeting on Wednesday from 9.30am.

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