Four new houses planned for Sutton St Nicholas

Mr J Corrick of Sutton St Nicholas has again applied to build four detached three-bedroom houses, two of them bungalows, to the east of Upper Court within the village.

The houses, of “modest heights”, would be of similar materials and have porches and traditional roof pitches with solar panels on south-facing sides.

Outline permission was refused in 2021 due to concerns over drainage, road layout, heritage impact, over-development and harm to neighbouring trees.

The revised application seeks to address the concerns over waste water with a 55-page drainage strategy.

A “nutrient neutrality budget calculator” has also yielded a figure for the likely phosphate discharge from the new developments, which will be mitigated by “phosphate credits” bought from the council under its recently introduced scheme.

An enlarged turning head within the development and improved visibility at junctions are intended to address the road layout issues.

A heritage assessment commissioned on the likely impact of the development on the setting of the adjacent grade II listed Upper Court concluded that this “has already been altered through modern development to south, west and north”.

The new houses would also be out of sight of the village’s many other listed buildings and of its conservation area, it said, and noted that modern sheds to rear of Upper Court, which have “a negative impact”, would be demolished as part of the plan.

The new application also questions the claim made in the earlier refusal that the scheme would be “incongruous” in the village, claiming: “The character of the site is heavily influenced by modern, residential development of comparatively little architectural merit.

“The development would be an improvement in that respect.”

The layout has also been altered to move the new houses away from the root protection area of trees in neighbouring properties.

Comments on the application, numbered 231391, can be made until June 27.