Canford Park development begins construction of 269 homes

BCP Council recently approved a reserved matters application from developer Taylor Wimpey for the commencement of work on the southern phase of the major Canford Park homes development.

Phase one will comprise of 269 homes, retail and office units as well as a community hub building on the land just off Magna Road and Knighton Lane.

Groundwork has already started on the project, as has road extension works along the narrow Knighton Lane in order for the carriageway to be widened to 6.3m along with a 3m footway.

The second phase, comprised of the remaining 426 homes in the northern section, will be the subject of its own reserved matters application. Phase three, meanwhile, concerns provision for a new 60-bed care home.

These all follow the approval of the project’s hybrid planning application, which encompassed the entire Canford Park development.

Reserved matters applications deal with outstanding details which were omitted from the outline planning application and include finer details on appearance, layout, landscaping and more.

An artists impression of the Canford Park homes development in Bearwood (Image: Taylor Wimpey)

BCP Council approved phase one on November 4 following the recommendation of a case officer. In their reasoning, case officer Jedd Goodwin-Roberts said: “The scheme has been sensitively designed to form its own unique character of this undeveloped site. Care has been taken to ensure at the fringes of the development site, character, design scale and the layout reflects the established character.

“The council had to demonstrate exceptional circumstances to alter the boundary of the Green Belt through the local plan process. One such circumstance was to significantly boost the supply of affordable housing.”

Of the 269 units included in phase one, 115 are described as affordable.

More than 400 people submitted representations to the original plans encompassing entire project, around 350 of which were objections.

A BCP Council spokesperson previously said: “This application and all submitted plans and documents were subject to extensive consultation throughout the application process with the local residents and community, as well as the relevant statutory consultees, fully in accordance with the consultation requirements by the Local Planning Authority that afforded the opportunity for representations to be submitted in response to the development proposals.”