Well, a real watershed moment for the village of Waresley. On Thursday 18th June 2020, Waresley Parish Council approved Planning Application 20/00771/FUL for a new and very large house on a plot at the village end of Manor Farm Road. Now, this is no ordinary new planning application. It is the first application to build a brand new house on virgin farmland in recent times.
And it is no ordinary house; some in the village are already calling it Waresley Palace. A quick look at the plans shows why. A large five bedroomed, barn style property with a sweeping drive down towards the entrance to Water End House. It is on a greenfield site, virgin pasture currently used as equine grazing. As far as anyone can remember this has always been the case. There are still families in Waresley who have been here since before the First World War!
The Village Boundary used to be the definition of the limits of a village. The new Huntingdonshire Local Plan 2036 has done away with this. In its place is a new definition – The Built Up Area. The HLP defines this as a collection of 30 or more houses in a distinct conurbation and this cannot be extended but can be infilled. This new house is apparently “infill” as the Parish council must have concluded that the plot was in “the built up area”. Probably not the majority view in the village.
To see the plans and submission, to judge for yourself, click on this link. If you enter the reference number from the title of this piece you will be taken straight to the documents:-https://publicaccess.huntingdonshire.gov.uk/online-applications/search.do?action=simple
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