Homes approved despite neighbours concerns
LDRSA housing development will be built on former farmland despite objections raised by local residents.
Sunderland City Council's planning and highways committee approved Homes by Esh's plans for 49 homes next to Burdon Road in the Doxford Area on a site owned by Ashbrooke Sports Club.
The scheme had sparked local concerns over a new four-arm mini-roundabout junction, a "significant" increase in traffic and the wider design of the estate.
Councillors said the proposed new junction could "manage the flow of incoming and outgoing traffic", while the sports club said enabling the plan to go ahead would clear its debts.
The estate would have vehicle access to the south via a new mini-roundabout junction with The Fold, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
In March, councillors voted to defer a decision to allow a potential alternative western site access to be explored, and the developer requested to withdraw its application from a meeting in June due to the "concerns raised locally."
But later that month proposals still included southern access.
A council report said developers had "discounted alternative access arrangements" with an argument centred on "legal [and] land ownership constraints."
LDRSWhen the housing plans went before the planning and highways committee again on 20 July, council planners said there were "no material planning grounds to require the developer to propose an alternative vehicular access into the site".
Local residents and Doxford Park ward councillors Heather Fagan and Michael Peacock spoke out against the plans.
They said the development would worsen existing traffic congestion and they had concerns about construction traffic.
A Homes by Esh representative told the meeting alternative entrances to the site had been considered, but the southern point was "the only viable vehicle access".
A council report said the proposed southern access could "manage the flow of incoming and outgoing traffic for both the new site and the existing residential properties at The Fold".
