Overdue works on 5,350 home Great Haddon development can start after years of delays

The development was due to deliver 5,350 homes, four schools and further facilities close to the A1M and A15 but has been beset by years of delays.

The council’s planning committee has now granted planning consent to developers O & H Properties and Marlborough Oasis to begin works, now that Section 106 Agreements are ready to be signed.

A S106 sets out the money developers will provide for infrastructure on a site.

However, 647 of the homes were due to be built on land co-owned by Barratt Homes and two families (referred to as ‘B land) but the council said the landowners do not want to sign a S106 until it enters a ‘collaboration agreement’ with the other developers. This would allow them to access the “roads, services and electricity” on each other’s land.

The council said the collaboration agreement was not a planning condition it could impose. Peter Frampton, representing the families’, said: “The B land owners are being asked to contribute 17 per cent of infrastructure costs with no arrangement for how the development of infrastructure is to be undertaken.”

The council’s planning and development manager Lee Collins said the shortfall of contributions from not building the 647 homes would be around £10 million, but this would be made up by not needing a third primary school, and by reducing the size of the secondary school.

The committee decided to restrict development on the ‘B land’ until a S106 Agreement was signed.