The site
The 25.32ha site is located to the east of Eccleshall, lying between Stone Road and Stafford Road. As such, it provides the opportunity for a vehicular link between these two key local routes.
The site lies on the settlement edge of Eccleshall, immediately east of the Sancerre Grange development.
Site location plan - click to enlarge
Site constraints and opportunities
How local features and landscape have shaped our thinking for the proposed layout of the new neighbourhood.
In preparing the concept layout for the site, the technical team appointed by Bloor Homes first of all considered the landscape, biodiversity features, topography and local context of the site. The adjacent plan shows some of the features and constraints that have informed the emerging outline proposals. Key features include existing trees and hedgerows, a public right of way that cross the site, existing water formations and the gentle slope of the site from south to north.
This plan shows an early analysis of some of the site features that have influenced the evolving masterplan for the site - click to enlarge
Planning policy context
The site is located outside the greenbelt and occupies a highly sustainable location on the edge of the settlement boundary of Eccleshall. As such, 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 Plan Review
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 The current Part 1 Local Plan for the Borough was adopted in 2014 and has now fallen significantly out of date.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. Stafford Borough Council are now in the very early stages of preparing a new Local Plan with a plan not expected to be adopted until early 2028.
Increased housing targets
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 will less than a three year housing land supply. Government requires councils to be able to demonstrate a five year supply of housing land.
Holistic approach to homes and infrastructure
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 Review. This approach will enable the early delivery of much-needed new homes at a sustainable location, while providing crucial community infrastructure in terms of a new school, health centre and highways connections planned in from the outset.
The alternative to this holistic approach to planned growth in Eccleshall would be that a range of developers submit planning applications for smaller developments on numerous sites around the town in the absence of an up-to-date Local Plan. Taken together, these would deliver housing numbers at a scale 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, with infrastructure planned in from the outset, including a new school, new health centre, specialist older people’s housing, and spine road linking Stafford Road with Stone Road.
Outcomes from our community aspirations suggest that a majority in the community agree that this holistic, infrastructure-led approach to meeting future housing need is preferable.
The new NPPF has doubled Stafford Borough’s housing targets from 358 to 749 new homes per year
An outline planning application establishes the broad principles of development, such as access arrangements, illustrative concept layout, number of homes and general extent of development.
If outline planning consent is granted, a detailed planning application called a Reserved Matters planning application would be prepared. This would include more detail such as architecture, materials, detailed layout and landscaping, and would be subject to further consultation with the local community before being submitted for determination. Both outline and Reserved Matters planning applications are subject to Statutory Consultation carried out by the Local Planning Authority (Stafford Borough Council).