Welcome
TEP on behalf of This Land Limited™ are preparing an outline planning application for a care home and up to 32 dwellings at Meadow View Farm, Thrapston Road, Brampton.
Prior to making the planning application, we are seeking the thoughts of the local community upon the draft proposals. We would like to know what you like about the proposals, which you disagree with and what you consider important about the site
This online consultation provides details of the proposals, the studies we have been undertaking and allows you to provide us your feedback on the scheme.
Site Context
The Application Site is currently part of a small farm stead bordered by the A14 to the north and Thrapston Road to the south. The Farm was most recently in pastoral use but is now vacant and ready for redevelopment.
The site is well related to the existing settlement of Brampton to the south and therefore the proposed development would integrate well and be easily accessible through walking and cycling routes. There is also a local bus service accessible east of the site which has six bus routes running services to St. Neots, Brampton and Huntingdon. Brampton has a wide range of existing services including, schools, health care, shops and amenities to meet day to day needs of residents.
Brampton has been identified as a ‘Key Service Centre’ in Huntingdonshire’s Planning Policy and therefore able to support moderate scale development.
Outline Proposals
The Proposed Development seeks outline planning permission for a 90-bed care home and residential development (up to 32 dwellings), together with car parking and associated landscaping. All matters are reserved except for access.
A draft illustrative masterplan layout is provided which includes the care home and residential uses. This layout shows access arrangements and an indicative layout for 32 dwellings, car parking and movement arrangements, and the care home location and parking proposals.
Illustrative Masterplan
The Proposed Development would seek to provide policy compliant affordable housing as per Huntingdonshire District Council’s Core Strategy affordable housing policy CS4.
An indicative dwelling mix has been provided on the illustrative masterplan with a range of one, two, three and four-bedroom dwellings proposed across the open market and affordable housing types. The dwelling mix has considered existing and emerging policies including evidence in the Cambridge sub-region Strategic Housing Market Assessment.
The care home element is shown at the western extent of the site. The illustrative masterplan provides for an area of approximately 0.66 ha within the site to include the 90-bed care home based on a building up to three-storeys in height. Dedicated areas for servicing, deliveries and refuse collection are identified on the illustrative masterplan to the north east of the care home.
Access to the site would be provided directly onto Thrapston Road, with two entry points proposed and an internal connecting road running through the site. The access road would be 5.5m wide with an 8m radius at the junction and 2.4m x 43m visibility splays provided, in accordance with Manual for Street principles. Policy-compliant car parking provision is included in the scheme proposals, comprising a mixture of driveway and garage block spaces dispersed through the site. Dedicated visitor and staff parking would be provided for the care home building away from the residential dwellings.
The illustrative masterplan has considered the Huntingdonshire Design Guide (2017) and design policy within the Local Plan Alterations 2002, Core Strategy and emerging Local Plan. The proposal would create a logical infill to land between Brampton and the A14. The layout design seeks to integrate the scheme with existing development along Thrapston Road. It shows how dwellings would front onto Thrapston Road with individual driveways and off-road parking provided. The aim is to promote an active frontage along this road.
A new two-metre wide footpath would be provided along the northern side of Thrapston Road to enable connectivity for residents and visitors from the Application Site into Brampton. The footpath would provide pedestrian links to the existing public right of way south of Thrapston Road. The site is close to several community facilities and amenities with access to employment uses and convenient transport links into Brampton and Huntingdon.
Several trees and hedgerows are located around the site boundaries, with a tree belt adjacent to the north and east Application Site boundary. Most trees and hedgerows are to be retained. Some low and moderate-quality trees are to be removed along the Thrapston Road boundary; however, the illustrative masterplan shows new tree and hedgerow planting is proposed throughout the site. The final design details would be considered at reserved matters stage.
Environmental Studies
We have been undertaking a number of environmental studies to support the application and these will shortly be completed covering:
– Air Quality
– Ecology
– Ground Environment
– Historic Environment
– Noise Impact
– Transport
– Tree Survey
Detailed archaeological assessment has been undertaken as part of the Historic Environment studies due to the western edge of the site being partly within a Scheduled Monument. Some of the community may be aware of the scheduled monument in this part of Brampton. We have been liaising with Historic England to have this boundary revised so it reflects the undisturbed archaeological interest to the north of the A14.
We recently undertook trial trenching to determine whether any buried archaeology was present on the application site. You may have been aware of this process due to the visual activity on site. The outcomes of this assessment will be reported as part of the suite of planning application documents.
