Eubank's new flats plan approved
The Arboretum is on the brownfield site of a former hospital near St Albans and received planning permission before guidelines on the number of homes change
Density is the buzz word in housing and you can certainly see it on new development near St Albans in Hertfordshire. However, it isn't homes that you find in abundance on this site of a former hospital, but trees.
Huge, stately specimens tower over the new houses. Here, at least, calling a development The Arboretum isn't a cue to sue under the Trades Descriptions Act.
Yet, run John Prescott's PPG3 slide rule over the Arboretum development and it falls well short.
PPG3, the government housing policy that promotes the building of high-density homes on brownfield sites, recommends a minimum of 12 homes per acre, rising to 20 if public transport is good.
There is room for a small village, but developer's Crest is building at just over seven houses to the acre.
The Arboretum is one of a number of developments where, quite legitimately, developers have managed to sidestep PPG3. Crest inherited a permission given in the 1990s, before the latest planning guidance came in.
Sarah Jones, Crest's sales and marketing director, says: "It would have been a travesty for us to build densely here. For every tree we found, we planted another. It is a big selling point."
There is support for developers for what can be perceived as PPG3-busting schemes. A Town and Country Planning Association spokesman said density was only one factor to be taken into account when big old sites were being redeveloped for homes. "Sometimes a lower density or one at the lower end of the scale the government is recommending is more appropriate, because of the character of the area, and the impact the scheme has on the local community. So it's not a question of cramming in as many homes as possible simply because you are reusing a site."
However, Dean Goodman, head of planning at St Albans council, says the days of such developments are numbered. He said old permissions predating PPG3 were running out, as were sites such as Crest's former hospital.
If such a planning application came up today, would his council have allowed more or less the same scheme? "I think not. I believe we would be bound for a variety of planning reasons to look towards a different scheme."
BBC News, 1st September 2004
