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Broadway residents’ group to oppose ‘garden grab’
A DISPUTE over a couple’s plan to build a house in their garden has seen fears voiced over the rise of “garden grabbing” in Peterborough.
Chris and Sally Hooton want to build and sell off a three-bedroom detached property in the garden of their home, in Broadway, so they can pay off their mortgage.
But Broadway Residents’ Association fear it will damage the character of the area.
The practice of building homes on residential land is known as “garden grabbing”, which started to rise in the middle of the last decade when homeowners began to take advantage of high land values to sell garden plots to developers and pay off their own mortgages.
Government figures show that one in five houses built in Peterborough between 2006 and 2009 were on residential land – compared to one in 20 between 1994 and 1997.
The Hootons have applied to Peterborough City Council for permission to create the home in their third-of-an-acre garden, which is too big for them to maintain.
Mrs Hooton co-owns the house with her sister, as it was inherited from their parents. She says the sale of the new property would allow her to buy it outright.
She said: “We have spent three years putting together these plans to ensure that they would not affect the streetscape.
“The house I’m living in was built in 1957 and it is not the most beautiful building. The one we want to build would be far more in keeping with the area.”
However, the residents’ group has expressed concern over the loss of some trees and shrubs from the garden.
In a letter to the council, the association’s Anne Brosnan added: “The garden is old and established and contributes greatly to the street scene in Broadway.”
Peterborough Civic Society chairman Peter Lee has also urged against overdevelopment if it has a negative effect on the city.
He is currently campaigning against the building of three blocks of flats on residential land in Fletton Avenue, Fletton.
He said: “We are not against the building of houses in gardens where the character of the area is still protected.
“But what we don’t want to see is overdevelopment that will have an adverse effect on neighbours.”
The new coalition Government has taken steps to cut down on “garden grabbing” by removing gardens from the definition of “brownfield sites”, previously used sites considered suitable for development.
City MP Stewart Jackson said: “I welcome the Government’s proposals to declassify back gardens as brownfield sites.
“I realise we need to build more homes but that should not be at the cost of spoiling residential amenity and quality.”
Ian Canham, chief executive of Broadgate Homes, in Spalding, said major developments on garden land can put strains on local infrastructure, such as parking and drainage.
But he said that older detached homes often have large gardens and the attraction of selling land can be hard to resist.
He said: “If someone comes an offers up to £100,000 for a garden with a planning permission on it, then it is a very tempting offer, particularly as many use it to pay off their mortgages.”
Peterborough City Council has questioned the Government figures, arguing the statistics may include houses subdivided into flats and replacement homes.
Head of planning Simon Machen said: “We have done some initial research since the figures were published and anticipate that the figure of 19 per cent is higher than our own figures, which suggests that nearer 10 per cent of new housing is provided on garden sites.
“This may also include cases where an existing house is replaced, or where a property is subdivided into flats.”
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Comments
There are 3 comments to this article
Page 1 of 1
Holly Golightly
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 02:38 PMIf you want to sell your property, or your kids do after you are dead, it would be stupid not to get planning permission to maximise your property. You might have got on with the neighbours, or been scared of them, but no new owner would be. I have been told that there are thousands of planning approvals just being renewed for previous approval to build in excessively large gardens. Such approval distorts the figure quoted for home sites, as they will only come into play when the owner is dead. For those concerned with the problem of giving homes to young people, trailer parks in Werrinton, Eye, or Westwood wood seem to be the perfect answer.
Dalek Sec
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 01:34 PMThe living hell that is the ConDem government seems desperate to oppose any new developments while the country is in the midst of the worst housing crisis in history. 38% of families do not expect their children to EVER own their own home, so, if they can afford to, what's wrong with building them one in the garden. More people than ever rent privately, in a practically unregulated market and the waiting list for social housing is just getting longer thanks to the incompetence of successive governments (Thatcher, Major, Blair, Brown and now Cameron) in not replacing homes sold of through the Right To Buy scheme. It just seems to me that further legislation such as that preventing "garden grabbing" is aimed at making this problem worse. I have heard nothing constructive about what the Condems are going to do about this crisis...
Holly Golightly
Monday, August 16, 2010 at 12:50 PMAnother case of NIMBYs at work devaluing their neighbours property. There is no reason why a house with a big garden should not be developed with a further property. A granny annex is common, and also roof conversions. Larger families can exist already within such houses. As for putting a strain on drainage or parking that is total rubbish here. Might be the case in Spalding but not in Peterborough. There needs to be common sense in this approach, and some gardens are better than others, Also overlooking can be a problem, so many would be bungalows. Many council houses are built on big plots with no garages, and further houses could be developed by knocking down houses and replanning the land sensibly to modern standards. How many tenants would love to buy their home outright if a bit of their garden was taken away. We should encourage the centre of our cities to be as dense as possible as with make more efficient use of public transport and all the facilities.
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