Parish Council organised village meeting!
Meeting held in the village hall on the 26th June to discuss the “outline” planning application S25/1033 (4 dwellings on Doddington Lane).
SKDC has received feedback on the planning portal: 11 total – 7 support, 3 neutral, 1 against, which reflects on how the meeting went. The one against is from the parish council.
EDIT: 26 June 2025
My meeting comments: Overall, the meeting was managed extremely well by the SPC Chairman. The developers planning representative, Nick Grace was invited to give a 15 minute presentation and then he fielded questions from the village.
I had the sense that the majority were in favour of the “outline” application. There was a line of questioning by one person which I really didn’t understand the motive of. However, Nick Grace answered all questions professionally, patiently and with a clear working knowledge of planning.
Finally, as this was not a Parish Council meeting, councillors were not summoned to attend. Therefore, they could have asked the developer questions, thus preparing themselves for the forthcoming Council Meeting?
I left the meeting feeling confident that people can now make a comment on the planning portal based on a better understanding of what is being proposed.
Link to the “outline” planning application: (S25/1033).
Extraordinary PC Meeting on 7th July 2025 regarding S25/1033
The meeting was conducted professionally with little or no input from the seven residents present. I left immediately after item 6 was deferred. SEE: Agenda for ref.
Below are the salient points I noted at the meeting.
Item 4 – minutes from the last two meetings were presented for approval. The minutes were approved without a proposer or seconder as I recall. Happy to be corrected.
Item 5 – The Council appeared to concentrating on finding reasons why the “outline planning” application was illegally presented or at least that was my impression. I was surprised on how little discussion there was between councillors on the overall planning application. The majority of the discussion was between the Chairman and the Clerk, who were working from prepared documents (listed as appendix on the agenda).
- The main thrust appeared to be what SKDC regulations S25/1033 fell under.
- SP2: Settlement Hierarchy. PC decided Stubton is a small village. Ref SKDC Local Plan (SKDC have an update in progress).
- SP3: Infill Development. PC decided S25/1033 is not infill.
- SP4: Development on the Edge of Settlements. PC decided SP4 does not apply to S25/1033.
- SP5: Development Outside of Settlements in the Open Countryside: PC decided does not apply.
- Comments were made on how the possibility of 8 cars leaving the proposed development could be dangerous on this very quiet country road (St Martins Close with many more vehicles, doesn’t have a problem entering Fenton Road for example).
- Doddington Lane flooding was discussed, this problem exists because a dyke has been reconstructed with an inadequate drain. This pipe blocks during heavy down pours at its entrance, while the land owner of the offending blockage never clears it. Consequently, this topic is irrelevant to the application.
- As a “councillor” I could not endorse the councils input to the planning portal without having the final statement being drafted for review. The Chairman deferred the final draft for the Parish Clerk to write. Therefore the councillors have not approved the statement that will be posted on the planning portal? This can be reviewed be at 23.21 on the audio minutes.
- I will upload the submission once observed on the planning portal and hopefully it reflects the villagers opinions: see S25/1033. Bearing in mind at the recent open discussion on this topic, the overall sense is that the village was behind this – I do hope this is reflected on the PC submission. Finally, I did not hear a vote on SP2/3/4/5, but not on the overall “outline application”.
