MAJOR plans to build 25 homes to provide ‘much needed’ affordable housing in a Lake District village have been given the green light.

The Lake District National Park Authority (LDNPA) has approved plans from Castles and Coasts Housing Association to build 25 new homes on agricultural land to the east of Crookfield in Staveley.

In August 2023 the LDNPA development control committee delegated approval of the housing scheme to the head of development management to approve the application.

Proposals include building 20 affordable homes as well as five local occupancy homes which will be available to the open market.

The proposed properties would be a mix of semi-detached bungalows, semi-detached houses and detached houses.

A design and access statement says: “The site is completing the development of land allocated for housing to the southern edge of the village of Staveley.

“It lies between the A591, the railway line and village centre. There are clear public benefits of the proposals as the site is providing much needed affordable housing.”

Previously plans for 31 homes on the Crookfield development were approved over two phases with permission to construct 18 houses approved in 2014, then proposals to build a further 13 properties were given the go-ahead in 2018.

Planning documents state there will be two vehicular accesses into the proposed site. Twenty houses will be accessed via Crookfield; and five houses would be accessed via Seedfield.

According to planning officers the proposed development would involve an ‘incursion’ into an inbye, evidence of early field systems, and would lead to an ‘element of loss’ of the Lake District’s ‘outstanding universal value’.

However the report said the incursion into an inbye would result in ‘less than substantial harm’ and adds: “The development would provide 25 homes in the rural service centre of Staveley, including 20 homes to meet an identified local affordable need.

“I consider that this would amount to a public benefit to outweigh the loss of the small area of inbye.”

Staveley and Ings Parish Council objected to the plans and commented: “The current sewerage system in the village cannot cope with the current flow when heavy and persistent rain occurs.”

The parish council added ‘raw sewerage’ flows into the street at several places because the pipework ws ‘not wide enough’ to accommodate the water flow at a point of restriction as it crosses under the River Kent.

According to a report by planning officers, following the concerns raised in representations, the applicant has amended the proposal with neither foul nor surface water discharging into the mains sewer.

Surface water runoff will be positively drained and attenuated prior to discharge into Stock Beck, to the south east of the site. Attenuation will be provided by a permeable block paving system, oversized pipes and a detention basin.

The plans were approved by the Lake District National Park on February 23.