Residents turned out in force last Thursday evening to Curo’s exhibition on the proposed housing development at Greenlands Road,

Peasedown St John. The site has been a highly controversial subject in the village, with B&NES originally refusing the plans by the original developer, Edward Ware, with the local authority then losing at appeal, one of the last heard without the Core Strategy in place. Since then, the land has been sold to the not-for-profit housing organisation, Curo.

Gerraint Oakley, Managing Director of Curo Homes, said: “We’re pleased that so many people came to see our proposals for new homes at Greenlands Road. Over sixty people came to this public exhibition where we were able to talk about our proposals and listen to the views of local people. This development will provide 89 new houses and apartments for Peasedown, 31 of which will be affordable homes. We’re planning to make a Reserved Matters application before Christmas, based on the Outline Consent given in June 2014 for this site.”

A spokesperson for the local group, Residents Protecting Peasedown, contacted The Journal following the exhibition. They said: “RPP is extremely disappointed by the way Curo has started its consultation with residents. It chose to hold the consultation with little notice, meeting in a venue that was far too small, with residents struggling to see the display boards. If Curo is serious about engaging with local people, it needs to do significantly better than this.

“On its website, Curo says it aims to ‘make a positive and profound contribution’ to the neighbourhoods it works in. It says it is ‘working for happy, safe, popular neighbourhoods’, ‘lobbying for positive social change’ and committed to ‘fairness for all’. If Curo really is committed to these values, it needs to explain how it will put them into practice in Peasedown.

“It has chosen to get involved in a development that faces massive opposition in the village: more than 950 villagers signed a petition against it, some 300 letters of objection were sent to the Council, and our Ward Councillors, the Parish Council and two neighbouring Parish Councils are all opposed to it.

“Opposition is so widespread because of the problems the new estate will create for our village. It will increase pressure on an already full school and surgery, lead to dire parking problems and generate more traffic using the already dangerous junction with Bath Road. The site is outside the housing development boundary and was deemed not suitable for development in the Council’s earlier Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment. It was only given the go-ahead after a lengthy planning battle, because at the time, B&NES Council failed to demonstrate that it had a sound Core Strategy.

“Many of the residents RPP has spoken to believe that the proposals put forward by Curo at the consultation meeting do little to address our fundamental concerns about the development.

“Curo needs to explain what it is going to do to deal with those concerns. It is not good enough for them to duck the issues by saying the development has already been given outline planning permission.

“RPP welcomes Curo’s proposal that representatives from the village could be involved in improving the design plans, and supports its proposals to limit heavy construction traffic accessing the site at busy times. However, these should not detract from the more fundamental issues that Curo needs to resolve.”

As part of the plans, Curo proposes to help unemployed young people in the village to engage with the construction phase of energy efficient homes, contributing £500,000 to the community and providing allotments and a community garden with off-road parking and visitor spaces.