Plans for 18 new homes in March put forward

Plans for 18 new homes in March have been put forward.

The homes would be located on the western part of land at Berryfield, towards to the north of March.

The Phase B site adjoins Phase A land to the east, where 28 new homes are already under construction.

A pre-application enquiry was submitted in July 2022, where there was considered to be a presumption in favour of development despite the incursion into the open countryside; this is due to the fact that only a limited amount of the site is developable due to flood risk constraints.

Swann Edwards Architecture has said that the new builds would be representative of those currently being built nearby.

Each of the 18 homes would have its own private garden and at least two parking spaces.

12 of the homes would have four bedrooms and the other six would have three. Four would be made available for either rent or shared ownership.

The application states: “The development will result in the loss of some Grade 2 agricultural land, however, in order to achieve the council’s Local Plan policies and housing targets some loss of high-grade agricultural land is inevitable.

"The amount of agricultural land lost as a result of the proposal is a relatively small parcel which would fall below the threshold for consultation with Natural England. In any case it would appear that the Local Planning Authority has no concerns with the loss of this land for agricultural purposes given that it has proposed to allocated this land for housing under the emerging Draft Local Plan.”

The application will now be considered by Fenland District Council and can be viewed on their planning portal using reference F/YR23/0550/F.