The 25.32ha site is located to the east of Eccleshall. The site lies immediately south of Stone Road and north of Stafford Road. The site is on the edge of the settlement boundary, lying immediately east of the Sancerre Grange development.
Family-owned housebuilder, Bloor Homes, is preparing an outline planning application for a landscape-led new neighbourhood of up to 500 high-quality family and affordable homes, a new school, a new health centre and extensive green infrastructure on land adjacent to the eastern edge of Eccleshall. At least 30% of the new homes would be affordable homes, providing opportunities for key workers and people on low incomes to secure a home of their own in Eccleshall.
The site is located outside the greenbelt and occupies a highly sustainable location on the edge of the settlement boundary of Eccleshall. It was submitted via Stafford Borough Council’s latest Call for Sites as ECC06 and promoted through the Council’s review of the Local Plan.
Local planning authorities are required by Government to update their Local Plans every five years. The current part 1 Local Plan for the Borough was adopted in 2014 and as such has now fallen significantly out of date. Progress on producing a Local Plan Review for the Borough was abandoned earlier this year following changes to national planning policy.
Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework announced by the new Government in late 2024 has doubled the number of homes Stafford Borough will need to deliver from 358 to 749 homes per year. This has left Stafford Borough Council with less than a three year housing land supply (Government requires council’s to be able to demonstrate a five year supply of housing land).
With continued uncertainty on the progress of a new Local Plan, and significantly increased pressure to deliver new homes, Bloor Homes is now preparing to bring forward an outline planning application while continuing to promote the site through the emerging Local Plan. This approach will enable the early delivery of much-needed new homes at a sustainable location, providing crucial community infrastructure in terms of a new school, health centre and highways connections.
The alternative to this holistic approach to planned growth in Eccleshall is that a range of developers would submit planning applications for numerous sites around the town in the absence of an up-to-date Local Plan. Each would be significant in its own right and together would represent a number of homes at similar to or in excess of what we are proposing, but with each individual development at a scale insufficient to include meaningful infrastructure. Our approach delivers most of Eccleshall’s future housing need in one planning application, enabling the development to provide infrastructure planned in from the outset, including a new school, new health centre, and spine road linking Stafford Road with Stone Road.
The site is located within Flood Zone 1 of the Environment Agency’s flood map for planning. This means it is considered to be at the lowest risk of fluvial flooding. However, we do recognise that flood risk is a significant concern for residents in Eccleshall more widely.
In terms of surface water drainage, the Environment Agency’s map suggests localised spots of surface water flooding on the site. The proposals will incorporate a sustainable drainage system (SUDS) that will manage surface water drainage from the development, delivering betterment to the current situation, in addition to providing habitat enhancement through the creation of wetland features.
We recognise that there are existing concerns relating to traffic, particularly in the town centre. We will be providing a spine road link between Stafford Road and Stone Road. This will provide an alternative local route between these two key routes, avoiding the town centre.
We will be enhancing walking links between the development and the town centre, to increase footfall to local businesses and provide access to local services for residents without the need to use a car.
By providing a school within the development, this will reduce the need for car use on the school run and relieve pressure on the town centre during peak hours. Similarly, by relocating the Crown Surgery from the High Street to a larger purpose built new health centre within the development, this will relieve parking pressures on the High Street.
The planning application will be accompanied by a robust Transport Assessment which will assess highway safety and capacity of the surrounding highway network to ensure that the development can be safely accommodated.
We do not want our development to have any negative impact on Gentleshaw wildlife centre, which we recognise as a fantastic local resource. We have met with the operators of the wildlife centre to find out more about the centre, so that we can design our scheme to ensure that any impacts are mitigated.
This important public right of way will be retained and enhanced within a green corridor as part of the open space proposals.
At least 30% of the new homes will be affordable homes. Bloor Homes is always happy to discuss local occupancy criteria for affordable homes with the local planning authority, if this is something that is identified as a local priority. This would ensure that people on lower incomes with connections to Eccleshall would be prioritised for affordable housing.
We are not currently proposing shops in the development, as we are conscious of the importance of protecting and boosting footfall to businesses on the High Street and the garden centre neighbouring the site.
Following positive feedback on this suggestion in our previous online community survey, we are now proposing to include specialist older people’s housing within the new neighbourhood. We have delivered this in other developments, for example a nearby development in Newport includes an extra care facility in which 100% of the accommodation is affordable.
The new homes at Eccleshall will be built to Future Homes Standard, meaning a gas-free development with new homes incorporating air source heat pumps, PV cells, uprated insulation and EV charging infrastructure. This will deliver a neighbourhood of net zero carbon-ready homes.
The new homes at Eccleshall will be built to Net Zero Carbon standards, incorporating solar panels, air source heat pumps and uprated insultation. They would become operationally Net Zero Carbon once the electricity grid supply has switched to 100%renewable and zero carbon sources.
The site is currently dominated by intensively farmed arable land, which is of low ecological value. The vast majority of habitats of higher ecological value within the site, such as mature trees, hedgerows, etc. will be retained as part of the proposals, buffered and incorporated into green infrastructure which will include extensive areas of public green open space, biodiversity areas and a significant increase in tree and landscape planting across the site. It is anticipated that the development will deliver at least 10% net gain in biodiversity.
No, the development is intended to be shaped by the existing landscape, including the retention of existing mature trees and the majority of hedgerows, with additional landscape planting significantly increasing tree cover across the site.
Yes, we have created this website as a dedicated consultation platform which will be complemented by a drop-in exhibition of the proposals. The drop-in event will take place at Eccleshall Community Centre, Shaws Lane, Eccleshall on Tuesday 17th June 2025 from 2pm – 7pm.
We are preparing an outline planning application. This is the first stage in the planning process which sets out broad principles of the development. If the outline planning application is approved by Stafford Borough Council, we will then need to prepare more detailed planning applications for each phase of development. Depending on the time taken in the planning process, we envisage that construction could start on the first phase at some point in 2027, with development being delivered in a number of phases over subsequent years.
This will be determined by the local planning authority in consultation with the local education authority and local NHS Integrated Care Board. They will determine trigger points at which we need to provide this important infrastructure. As a family-owned business, Bloor Homes’ focus is on quality and reputation. We have a proud track record of delivering high quality developments, including the delivery of key infrastructure in a timely manner.