Duke of Northumberland scraps building plans

Jun 30 2009 by Brian Daniel, The Journal

THE Duke of Northumberland has given in to people power, by withdrawing controversial plans.

His development arm Northumberland Estates had submitted plans to Northumberland County Council to build three homes, three detached garages and a link road on land at Addycombe in Rothbury. The application yielded 18 letters of objection from residents and also opposition from Rothbury Parish Council.

The site is close to where the estates is halfway through building around 100 homes.

One parish councillor told The Journal in April that the proposed location is a “green oasis” amid the surrounding development which nearby residents take pride in and care for.

Coun Tony Sandford said it is also home to one of few remaining ancient hedgerows in the area, which residents have also maintained.

He said residents had suffered enough following years of noise and disruption caused by development in the area.

And he said it had resembled a building site since work began. He accused the duke of being “insensitive” in planning further development, and at proposing the loss of the green and hedgerow.

Now, however, the duke has withdrawn the application – because of the level of opposition.

Northumberland Estates director of planning Colin Barnes last night said: “It was really just a small scheme and I think we just felt that in this case there was some local opposition to it and it was just a small scheme for some affordable housing and, if it was not wanted, given the scale of it, we did not think it was worth pursuing.