Background:
Helen and Andrew Dean contacted Richborough about promoting their land in the village of Wombourne, South Staffordshire, following a recommendation.
The nine acre site, a disused plant nursery, belonged to the family but they were no longer able to maintain it. Aware of the area’s growing housing requirement, the couple had decided their land would be ideal for new family homes.
The land promotion process:
Richborough met with Helen and Andrew to discuss their objectives, assess the site’s development potential and fully explain the strategic land promotion process. With both parties happy, we entered into a Promotion Agreement.
From there our expert designers and planners researched and created an outline scheme of new homes that harmonised with the local area and began to progress it through the emerging Local Plan process. As the land was designated as Green Belt, a robust argument had to be made to the Local Planning Authority and eventual Planning Inspector who examined the Council’s proposed Local Plan.
Our technical team tackled infrastructure challenges including access and drainage issues to ensure the land was shovel ready for a housebuilder. Following extensive work with the Inspector and Council, we were successful in securing the removal of the site from the Green Belt and its allocation for 90 homes.
The results:
In January 2019, following extensive stakeholder consultation, we secured outline planning permission for 90 new homes and weeks later we appointed national housebuilder Bovis Homes as development partner. Bovis Homes are now delivering Fletchers Rise – a stunning collection of 2, 3, 4 and 5 bedroom family homes, which is experiencing very high levels of buyer interest.
Our landowner says:
Helen says she contacted Richborough as she knew she would need support to navigate the complicated planning process and find a housebuilder.
“An architect friend of ours knew first hand how complex the whole process would be,” she explains. “He recommended we approach Richborough as they have a great reputation and years of experience.
“We are really happy with how it all went. The Richborough team were fantastic and always kept us informed. There was always someone on the other end of the phone or they were happy to pop over and see us if needed which was a great comfort. We trusted them.
“It has been quite emotional at times as the land was home to my grandmother, mother, uncle and aunt. But we simply couldn’t carry it forward and are really pleased it has created lots of fantastic new homes for families.”