In hugely disappointing news, East Cambs district council’s Planning Committee today unanimously approved Endurance Estates’ application for planning permission for 53 dwellings at Garden Close in Sutton.

The committee had refused an identical application in January this year, and the outcome of Endurance’s appeal against that decision is still not known.

The number of dwellings on the site is more than double the number allocated in the district council’s draft Local Plan, which envisaged 25 retirement bungalows in this location. The smaller 25-bungalow proposal had some support from the local community, and was reflected in Sutton’s draft Neighbourhood Plan.

The proposed density of the development will be higher than in parts of the North Ely development in the city centre.  The site itself is also larger, leading to the need for complex drainage arrangements which would have to be managed in perpetuity.  Other properties in the area already experience problems with surface water, excess rainwater, and water run-off.

The permission given today is an ‘outline’ planning permission, which decides only the total number of houses and that access to the new development will be via the existing small road into Garden Close.  The detailed layout and other matters still remain to be decided by the Planning Committee at a future date.

17 of the 53 dwellings will be ‘affordable’, but the definition of this is 80 per cent of full price.

Image: Cllr Lorna Dupré with Mark Inskip at Garden Close