Developer Rooksmead Residential has had a plan approved to build seven properties on a wedge of green land between Sloe Lane and Ramsgate Road adjacent to its Westwood Acres site off Poorhole Lane.
The development has been amended from initial plans for nine properties and now includes a pedestrian footpath along the back of plots 1-4 at Sloe Lane.
Rooksmead Residential has previously developed the 153 home site at Poorhole Lane and applied for a 60-bed care home on land within the same site although that application was refused. The Sloe Lane plot is allocated for housing under the original Westwood Lodge allocation.
Planning documents say: “These proposals will bring forwards 7 dwellings designed as chalet bungalows on this sustainably located site which is in the built-up area of (Westwood). A high-quality residential development is proposed, that is complementary to the existing residential character of Ramsgate Road and the development under construction to the east.”
Initially, a pre-application submission set out proposals for a four-storey development of 28 two-bedroom units (above) but the council the Council concluded the proposed building was too large in terms of its height, bulk and footprint.
A further pre-application advice request was submitted in 2023 for a 9 chalet bungalow scheme on a smaller part of the site and this was then reduced to ‘a cul de sac’ of seven ‘chalet’ homes made up of three 3-bed properties and four four-bed.
Planning documents say: “The proposals will introduce a chalet bungalow development (including a second floor in the roof).
“The dwellings will be contemporary in design and appearance and will be finished in a suite of high-quality external materials.”
There will be two car parking spaces per property and three additional visitor spaces.
The planning documents say: “Most of the trees are retained and protected within the site, “ but notes two ‘dying’ trees will be removed.
Documents add: “The proposals present a unique opportunity to redevelop the site in line with the residential allocation to provide much needed housing in a highly sustainable location close to the towns of Margate, Thanet and Broadstairs along with a range of shops, schools, facilities and employment uses within walking distance.”
A decision notice granting permission was published yesterday (March 5).
It must be very handy for developers in Thanet that what few trees we have are always “dying”, yet poor plebs like me have to jump through hoops to get a few twigs cut off a sycamore!
i have had exactly the same problems with trees over the years , perhaps we cant afford a big enough envelope ? , i even had problems with a small garage extension but it seems hundreds of houses on grade 1 farm land is quite an easy thing to get passed ?. its laughable realy but so many people are now on the gravy train anything is possible in thanet
Maybe because some of you are, logically speaking, in conservation areas and other developments aren’t. Nice bit of base level reasoning for you there this morning.
I’ve just realised where Poorhole Lane is! I’ve been driven past on a number of occasions (mostly luncheon dates at Kaspa’s and Burger King) and believed it to have a far more mediaeval, rustic appellation. Courtesy of the local scribes I now assume.
Good to see bungalows being built for a change, albeit chalet bungalows, it adds a different mix to the housing stock. Just hope any future applications to extend upwards is refused.
I don’t think these are for social housing stock, just big money sales. The requirement for social housing is 9 plus for any affordable housing allocation to be granted. The developers are clever when having to create social or affordable housing. In this case its under the requirements. Other developers like manston recently have also got away without supplying the allocation and removing the higher planned numbers of properties lower to avoid not making maximum profit and having to supply affordable housing.
On the lower plan above, which I assume is the latest with 7 homes instead of the 9 at top, it shows access across the footpath named Sloe Lane, and the emergency access through the grade ll listed gates.
Will there be warning signs for drivers and pedestrians on the path that vehicles will be crossing? And will the emergency access be reopened as there are wooden posts affixed and traders selling cars in the way of the access? Nothing is made clear in the plans as shown.
why do you ask this in a newspaper comments section instead of actually emailing the developers/planning dept?
Be no land left for small wildlife if coucil keep granting permission for all these properties so much land for housing everywhere wd will loose open spaces like no business think twice before granting so many.
Poor old lane … it used to be a nice tree lined narrow lane . Om sure the black death graves all around there will love scarring new victims of the new residents
The TDC must be rolling in money with all the brown envelopes gone their way
“everything i don’t understand on a local governmental level means someone’s chucking bungs around, nm it being quite libellous without a shred of evidence of my claims”
fixed that for you.
i dont think any of the wild life ,the birds , and flora and fauna have ever been taken into consideration on that site , some of the last natural woodland in the area , i know from experience that area has owls , badgers , foxes and even herons ! towards the margate end there is actualy a heronery , probably the only one in thanet , its so wrong what is going on here , and all that matters is money ,money , money !
“some of the last natural woodland in the area”
I mean, that’s bs, but go off. Its unlike you to present a non histrionic view, laden with factual info RW!
“towards the margate end there is actualy a heronery ”
Google says you’re talking utter rubbish, as do the RSPB.