Plans for a new fully-affordable 76-home estate at Penrith look set to get the green light.
Housing association Riverside and Atkinson Building Contractors Ltd applied to Eden Council for permission to build the mix of 35 rented homes and 41 shared ownership homes on 2.18 hectares at White Ox Farm on Inglewood Road.
The council’s planners have recommended the application for approval when it is considered by its planning committee on Thursday.
The recommendation is subject to all of the homes being affordable and the site being linked to existing footpaths.
A council report prepared ahead of the meeting said the applicant had attempted to address concerns around scale, design and layout, as well as landscape, drainage, highways and noise and air impacts.
The report said: “While some of the changes made are not as far-reaching as officers would prefer, it is recognised that to go further would potentially jeopardise the ability to deliver a 100 per cent affordable scheme and the significant social and economic benefits that this would achieve/deliver to the district.”
A previous planning application for the wider 3.95 hectare site in 2017 for 51 homes was given the go-ahead.
However, Cumbria County Council objected to the new plans, unless Riverside and Atkinson committed to a £204,000 contribution towards primary school places.
Riverside and Atkinson Building Contractors said the request would make the development unviable.
But, in the report, the authority said: “Having reviewed the viability of this scheme it is considered that the case has not been sufficiently made for waive the requirement for the calculated education contribution for reasons of scheme viability.
“Furthermore, the provision of a greater proportion of affordable
housing on a specific site through public sector subsidy is not evidence in itself of problematic site viability.”
Fourteen neighbours were consulted about the scheme and Eden Council was sent five letters of objection and four neutral representations.
Riverside and Atkinson Building Contractors also supplied a masterplan for the site, which says the remaining land would be earmarked for further housing at a later stage.
