Controversial plans for a housing development on the Isle of Wight have been approved, but only after changes were made to the affordability of some of the proposed properties.
In total, 56 houses can now be built on the corner of Steyne Road and Hillway Road in Bembridge, after members of the Isle of Wight Council’s planning committee gave them the thumbs up last night (Tuesday).
More than 600 objections had previously been submitted, calling the scheme “wholly unacceptable” and “an overdevelopment of an unsustainable site.”
The plans include 20 ‘affordable’ properties – which can be defined as 20 per cent below market value.
These would still cost around half a million pounds, said councillors, prompting developer Thornwood Estates IW to agree to increase the discount to 25 per cent.
Cllr Geoff Brodie proposed 16 of the 20 houses should be ‘socially rented’, to make then even more achievable.
At a final vote, six councillors were in favour of the application with two against and two abstentions.
Cllr Chris Quirk, who voted against the development, said even with the affordable discounts the properties would only be available to poorer people by Bembridge standards – those “on a mere £150,000 a year”.
He said it was difficult to see how the plan would deliver genuinely affordable houses to benefit of young Islanders.
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