Plans for 16 flats at old care home opposed due to no affordable housing

PLANS to convert a former care home into 16 flats have been recommended for refusal because it does not provide enough “desperately needed” affordable housing.

Chilterns End in Greys Road, Henley, has been derelict for eight years.

It was closed by the Orders of St John Care Trust in 2016 when it moved to the new
64-bed Chilterns Court care centre, next door to Townlands Memorial Hospital.

Oxfordshire County Council, which owns the freehold of the 2.37-acre site, agreed to sell it to Nicholas King Homes earlier this year — subject to the firm receiving planning permission to develop it.

However, an application to demolish the existing buildings and put in
16 dwellings was criticised by the town council’s planning committee.

Councillor Ian Reissmann, the deputy mayor, argued against it as the site had been allocated for
27 homes under the joint Henley and Harpsden neighbourhood plan.

He said that the applicants have attempted to use the vacant building calculation to reduce the 40 per cent affordable housing requirement, taking the number from six or seven units down to two.

This planning rule can reduce the amount of affordable housing a developer is required to provide when redeveloping a site that already has empty buildings on it.

If the developer claims vacant building credit, the council must exclude the floor area of the old, unused buildings when calculating that 40 per cent.

But councils can refuse to accept vacant building credit if the site does not meet certain criteria set out in Government guidance.

Cllr Reissmann argued that the neighbourhood plan “takes precedent” over national planning rules and that he therefore “does not agree at all” with what the applicant is suggesting.

He also said that it had failed to clarify what criteria was being used for the vacant building credit.

“They have neither referenced these [criteria] nor justified why they don’t apply,” Cllr Reissmann said. “They have completely failed to make that case. On the numbers, they haven’t got their arguments in place at all and I don’t accept them.”

Cllr Reissmann added that some of the residences would be too large, while Councillor Michelle Thomas added her own concerns over building heights of two-and-a-half storeys.

She also criticised the absence of any cross-section drawings — making it hard to determine how large the houses are compared to neighbours.

Additionally, Cllr Thomas said that there will be a
100 per cent loss of mixed deciduous woodland which the ecology officer thought “could have been retained”.

She also shared Cllr Reissmann’s concerns over the affordable housing aspect.

“Henley is absolutely crying out for affordable housing,” she said. “Every single [affordable] house… is desperately needed.

“At any given time, if you look at the rental market in Henley, there’s such a paucity of rentals.

“The last time I looked just a couple of weeks ago, there was something like
15 rentals available. Three of those were retirement apartments and three were what I’d call completely out of people’s league. So yes, every single affordable development we can get our hands on is absolutely vital to this town.”

But Councillor Laurence Plant recommended it for approval, saying there is “a lot of support” from the community.

He said the neighbouring Chiltern Centre, a charity providing care for disabled young adults, is “very happy with the design” and is “appeased” by a reduction in units since earlier, larger plans.

They are happy with the number of homes dropping, because the two buildings share the access rights and parking, he said, so fewer units will mean less pressure on these.

Cllr Plant added that the handful of residents who have commented on the application are also supportive now the number of units has dropped from more than 20 units down to 16.

Cllr Thomas expressed surprise that the Chiltern Centre had made any comment, since it is planning to move sites, to a new £3.5million building at Highlands Park, off Greys Road.

Cllr Reissmann put forward a motion to oppose the plans which was approved.