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Work to start on 90-home scheme

blackmorevaleJanuary 12, 20210 Comment0

The construction of the first 90 homes of Taylor Wimpey’s Gillingham Lakes development will start this month.

The developer has also announced an outline application will be submitted shortly for 115 homes in phase two to the south. The first phase was approved in outline in May 2015 and granted detailed planning permission, subject to conditions, in February 2019.

A spokesman from Taylor Wimpey Southern Counties said: “We can confirm that Taylor Wimpey Southern Counties has now completed contracts on Gillingham Lakes Phase 1 and this has detailed planning permission for 90 homes, of which 20% is affordable. We will be starting on site in January 2021 with a sales information centre and show homes scheduled to open September/October 2021. Additionally, we will be submitting our outline application for 115 homes (25% affordable) on the Phase 2 land imminently and this will be to the south of the Phase 1 site. We have also exchanged contracts on Phase 2 and will complete on this land in June 2022.”

At the time of the initial application there was concern that the access off Addison Close onto an already congested Gillingham road would lead to further problems for drivers and pedestrians, and that services would fail to keep pace with development, but they were overruled by North Dorset District Council’s planning committee, which was told that the intention was to continue the road south to New Road south of Lodden Lakes when the Gillingham extension went ahead.

The land east of Lodden Lakes and north of the Gillingham extension had already been designated for housing in the then local plan, and planning officer Robert Lennis said the concerns raised at the outline stage would demonstrate to the developers, who also own the extension site to the south, how ‘steadfast’ the authority would be in requiring services to be provided.