Wyre Forest District Council
Authority Monitoring Report 2022/23
Last updated 2 January 2024
1. Introduction
- The council has a duty to monitor the effectiveness of its planning policies under the Town and Country Planning (Local Planning) (England) Regulations 2012, through the production of an Authority Monitoring Report (AMR).
- This AMR monitors the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2023.
2. Local Development Scheme Implementation
- The Local Development Scheme (LDS) sets out the timetable for the production of all planning policy documents which the Council seeks to produce. This section reviews the Council’s performance against the timetable and milestones outlined in the LDS.
- The Wyre Forest District Council Local Plan was adopted on 26 April 2022.
- The LDS will be revised during 2023/24 to outline the timetable for the production of Supplementary Planning Documents following the adoption of the Local Plan..
3. Neighbourhood Plans
- There are five Neighbourhood Area designations in Wyre Forest for Chaddesley Corbett, Churchill and Blakedown, Bewdley, Upper Arley and Cookley and Caunsall. There are two made (adopted) Neighbourhood Plans for Chaddesley Corbett and Churchill and Blakedown. Chaddesley Corbett reviewed their Neighbourhood Plan and the revised plan was adopted March 2023..
4. Section 106 contributions
- During the monitoring year there were seven S106 agreements signed. Details are shown in the following tables.
Table 1. S106 agreements signed during 2022/23 Application reference
Site location
Development proposed
Date signed
Contribution requested
To be used for
20/0892/FUL
Carpets of Worth, Stourport-on-Severn
Development of 129 houses
05/04/2022
32 affordable housing units for rent and shared ownership.
£150,000 highways contribution.
Provision of a controlled pedestrian crossing facility on Discovery Road and the conversion/widening of the footway located to the south of the proposed development, to link with the existing provision on Discovery Road
21/1064/HYB
Former Parsons Chain Site, Stourport-on-Severn
Development of 94 dwellings and one care home.
25/07/2022
24 affordable housing units for rent and shared ownership.
£224,180 highways contribution.
£35,650 health contribution£172,100 education.
£95,581 public open space contribution
Towards improvements to bus stops on Hartlebury Road and Kylemine Way and improvement works at Worcester Road.
Improvements to existing premises or improved digital/telecare services.
For special education need provision in the Stourport area
For improvements to infrastructure in Burlish meadows or other public open space in Stourport.
21/00197/OUTL Stourport Road, Bewdley
Up to 100 dwellings
29/09/2022
24 affordable housing units for rent and shared ownership.
£224,180 highways contribution.
£35,650 health contribution.
£172,100 education.
£95,581 public open space contribution.
Improvement or expansion works at Bewdley Leisure Centre.
Improvements to existing premises or improved digital/telecare services.
For dropped kerbs and improvement to paving.
Improvements to education facilities in Bewdley or Wyre Forest School.
22/0183/FUL
Stourport High School
Up to 110 dwellings
27/10/2022
28 affordable housing dwellings
Highways Contribution £95,500
Off site sports facilities £900,000
Provision of new active travel route and provision of parking spaces adjacent to the school and development.
Allocated to the high school for provision of new pitches.
Table 2 S106 monies received during 2022/23 Application reference
Site location
Date received
Amount received
To be used towards
13/0573/FULL
Coopers Arms
27/03/23
£6949.99
Public open space
14/0056/FULL
Sebright Road
27/03/23
£6541
Public open space
17/0205/OUTL
Lea Castle
15/02/23
£139,154.75
Health Contribution
19/0521/FULL
Stourminster School
22/09/22
£30,731
Wet Woodland Contribution
21/0597/FUL
Chichester Caravans
07/06/22
£6391.44
Public open space
21/1064/HYB
Former Parsons Chain Site
01/03/23
£37,436.66
£95,581.08
Health Contribution
Public Open Space
22/0183/FUL
Stourport High School
01/03/23
£910,612.02
Pitch provision
5. Duty to Cooperate
- A number of meetings were held with adjoining authorities during the monitoring year. A Statement of Common Ground was signed by Wyre Forest District Council alongside other adjoining local authorities to set out the steps being taken to address unmet housing needs in the wider Greater Birmingham Housing Market Area. Wyre Forest continued to attend regular officer meetings as a neighbouring authority.
- Following the adoption of the Worcestershire Minerals Local Plan in July 2022, officers were involved in discussions about the emerging Mineral Site Allocations DPD in Autumn 2022 as proposed allocations had repercussions for some of our allocated sites.
6. Brownfield Land Register
- The Government is committed to maximising the number of new homes built on suitable brownfield land. The Town & Country Planning (Brownfield Land Register) Regulations 2017 makes provision for local planning authorities to prepare, maintain and publish registers of brownfield land. The register should identify previously developed sites which have been assessed as being suitable for housing use. The BLR was first published in December 2017. During the monitoring year one small site in Kidderminster town centre on Prospect Hill was added to the register and 4 sites in Stourport and 1 in Bewdley were end dated (that is removed from the register) as they were being redeveloped.
Table 3 sites removed from the Brownfield Land Register in 2022/23 Site reference
Location
Planning application
Development
Reason for site being end dated
AKR/20
Carpets of Worth Stourport
20/0892/FUL
Redevelopment for housing (Barratt Homes)
Construction well advanced
MI/3
Parsons Chain Stourport
21/1064/FUL
Redevelopment for housing (Taylor Wimpey)
Construction well advanced
MI/5
Land off Baldwin Road Stourport
15/0716/FUL
16/0603/FUL
18/0447/FUL
Redevelopment for housing (Biran Homes)
Construction well advanced
MI/29
Chichester Caravans Stourport
21/0597/FUL
Redevelopment for affordable housing (BDHT)
Construction well advanced
BR/BE/1
Fire Station Bewdley
20/0875/FUL
Redevelopment for small supermarket with flats over
Site completed
7. Custom and Self-Build Register
- The Self-Build and Custom Housebuilding Act (March 2015) places a duty on local authorities in England to maintain a register of individuals and associations who are interested in finding a serviced plot of land for self-build or custom build homes in their local authority area. The Wyre Forest register opened in April 2016 and a review was carried out in May 2019 to check whether all those on the register wished to remain. There were 54 individuals and one association on the register at the end of October 2022 (the Register monitoring period runs until the end of each October). The highest demand was for 3-bedroom houses followed by 4 bedrooms. The most popular preferred parishes were Wolverley, Far Forest, Cookley, and Chaddesley Corbett, Stone.
8. Housing delivery
- The housing requirement for Wyre Forest is 276 dwellings as required by the Adopted Local Plan (April 2022).
Housing delivery against housing requirement since start of plan period Year
Housing requirement
Housing delivery
2016/17
189
262
2017/18
201
184
2018/19
246
183
2019/20
227
199
2020/21
154
236
2021/22
227
323
2022/23
276
515
NB figures are net of demolitions. 20/21 housing requirement was reduced to reflect impact of Covid lockdown on housebuilding. All figures are from published Housing Delivery Test other than for the monitoring year so delivery figures may include a small element of communal housing.
-
Wyre Forest District Council monitors the number of completed dwellings each year as well as the number of dwelling commitments which feed into the 5-year housing land supply. This monitoring year 2022/23 there were 515 completions (net) with a further 537 (net) dwellings under construction and 915 (net) dwellings not started which benefitted from planning permission. The five year housing land supply for Wyre Forest District Council at 1 April 2023 was 10.43 years. A total of 8 applications lapsed in the monitoring year relating to 19 dwellings.
- The number of dwellings completed in 2022/23 was far greater than any number seen for almost 20 years. Much of this is down to the redevelopment of the former Lea Castle Hospital for 600 dwellings and the former Tomkinson Carpets site at Churchfields in Kidderminster for 246 dwellings. These sites also received grant funding to increase the proportion of affordable housing provided with Lea Castle being 40% and Churchfields being 60% affordable.
-
Historically, Wyre Forest District Council has seen very high figures of housing built on brownfield land. This trend continued during the monitoring year with 97% completed on such sites. The Local Plan also identifies further large sites which are suitable for residential development, many of which are brownfield. The following table shows the split between brownfield and greenfield completions since 2016.
Table 5 Housing Completions with Brownfield/Greenfield split Year
Brownfield dwellings
Greenfield dwellings
Total number of dwellings completed
Percentage of Brownfield
2016/17
254
17
271
94
2017/18
154
11
165
93
2018/19
182
5
187
97
2019/20
153
48
201
76
2020/21
140
103
243
58
2021/22
297
29
326
91
2022/23
505
16
521
97
Total
1685
229
1914
88
All figures are gross completions.
-
Although house prices in Wyre Forest are lower than for much of Worcestershire, household incomes are also lower. This means that there is a need to provide affordable housing. Policy SP.10 requires the provision of at least 90 units of affordable housing per annum during the plan period.
The following table shows the affordable housing provision split by tenure type.Table 6 Affordable Housing completions by tenure (gross) Year
Affordable Rent
Social Rent
Shared Ownership
Discounted Market
Total Affordable
2016/17
100
4
13
0
117
2017/18
8
3
21
0
32
2018/19
14
0
76
0
90
2019/20
15
7
26
6
54
2020/21
61
12
20
0
93
2021/22
88
11
33
0
132
2022/23
151
25
75
0
251
Total
437
62
264
6
769
-
Policy SP.9: Housing Density and Mix sets out the importance of providing a mix of dwellings sizes and types to meet the local housing need. Much of the District’s household growth is due to an increase in the number of single person households. With an ageing population, there is also a need to provide smaller dwellings for those wishing to downsize. The following table shows the housing mix provided in the district since 2016.
Table 7 Mix of dwelling types completed Year
1-bed house
2-bed house
3-bed house
4-bed house
5-bed house
1-bed flat
2-bed flat
3-bed flat
2016/17
6
20
43
53
13
52
84
0
2017/18
4
45
58
23
7
21
7
0
2018/19
4
37
18
12
5
70
41
0
2019/20
4
41
85
29
4
31
7
0
2020/21
3
55
114
31
7
22
9
2
2021/22
5
76
119
67
1
39
17
2
2022/23
1
112
198
59
1
69
81
0
Total
27
386
635
274
38
304
246
4
9. Employment delivery
- For the purposes of the AMR, employment land relates to business, industrial, storage and distribution uses only, as defined by use classes B1, B2 and B8 of the Town & Country Planning (Use Classes) Order 1987. This was amended in September 2020 and Class B1 no longer exists, instead being considered under Use Class E(g). The following table sets out the amount of land developed since 2016 for employment uses.
The figure for 2022/23 includes 16 hectares at Drakelow Tunnels.Table 8 Hectarage of employment land completed Year
Total B1/2/8 and E(g) Completions in Hectares
2016/17
3.48
2017/18
1.42
2018/19
0
2019/20
0
2020/21
1.51
2021/22
2.5
2022/23
16.42
Table 9: Non-residential sites completed in 2022/23 Location
Planning reference
Development
Floorspace sqm
Town Hall, Vicar St. Kidderminster
19/0716/FUL
Change of use of customer hub to café
140 A3
Drakelow Tunnels, Kingsford Lane, Wolverley
19/0242/FUL
Change of use for wine storage, erection of portacabins for office and museum
26477 B8
3300 D2
Dunley Road Stourport
19/0565/FULL
2 Storey Medical Facility plus pharmacy
1956 D1
150 A1
Hare and Hounds PH, Shenstone
19/0676/RES
Erection of extension to provide up to 7 motel rooms
237 C1
West Midlands Safari Park
21/0621/FUL
Erection of 8 rhino and giraffe lodges
776 C1
West Midlands Safari Park
21/1059/FUL
Erection of 4 tiger lodges
442 C1
10. Planning appeals
- Planning appeals give a good measure of how well planning policies are performing. The appeals determined during the monitoring year 2022/23 were the first ones to be determined using the policies contained in the Adopted Local Plan. There were 19 appeals determined during the monitoring year, 5 were allowed and 14 dismissed. The following table sets out the appeals determined in the monitoring year. It should be noted that the decision on 21/0/2022 predates the adoption of the Local Plan.
Table 10 Planning Appeal Decisions 2022/23 Date of decision
Location
Planning reference
Proposal
Decision
21/04/2022
Orchard House, Cleobury Road, Far Forest
21/0565/OUT
Erection of 4 self/custom build dwellings
Allowed
05/07/2022
Land east of The Wain House, Lye Head, Bewdley
21/0592/FUL
Erection of 2 detached holiday lets (11 months)
Dismissed
05/07/2022
Olive Tree, Buckeridge Lane, Rock
19/0787/FUL
Change of use of land to site ten holiday lodges
Dismissed
13/07/2022
The Lodge, 12 New Wood Lane, Blakedown
21/0265/HOU
Proposed loft conversion
Dismissed
19/07/2022
33 Baldwin Road, Kidderminster
21/1101/HOU
Two-storey side extension
Allowed
31/08/2022
Land rear of 5 Adam Street
21/0441/FUL
New bungalow
Allowed
12/09/2022
12 Trimpley Lane, Bewdley
21/0641/HOU
Extensions to create annexe – condition to prevent separate ownership
Dismissed
14/09/2022
Railway Corner, Stanklyn Lane, Summerfield
21/0608/PIP
Demolition of existing buildings and redevelopment to create 1-3 dwellings
Dismissed
22/09/2022
Land adjacent Keys Meadow, New Road, Far Forest
21/0389/OUT
Construction of four 2-bed bungalows
Dismissed
29/09/2022
Wyre Mill Cottage, Mill Lane, Wolverley
21/0729/S73
Replacement of permitted garage with Lifetime Home without complying with conditions
Allowed
20/10/2022
Callimore Farm, Rushock
20/0856/FUL
Change of use of land for storage of agricultural machinery, use of agricultural buildings for storage and retention of commercial buildings for offices
Dismissed
09/11/2022
51 Brinton Crescent, Kidderminster
21/0670/PIP
Proposed bungalow
Dismissed
25/11/2022
Brown Westhead Park Wolverley
21/1200/OUT
Erection of 3 dwellings
Dismissed
12/12/2022
Rear of 17-26 Vicar Street, Kidderminster DY10 1DA
21/0009/FUL
Proposed three storey upward extension above existing loading parking bays to rear of 17-26 Vicar Street to provide 9no. residential units (C3), complete with undercroft for bins, bikes and access
Dismissed
06/01/2023
16/18 Birmingham Road, Blakedown, Kidderminster DY10 3JE
21/0265/HOU
Conversion and extension of existing properties to 3no. dwellings, together with construction of 3no. bungalows to rear
Allowed
12/03/2023
The Beeches, Curslow Lane, Shenstone, Kidderminster DY10 4DX
19/0787/FUL
Change of Use of Land for the creation of 6 Gypsy/Traveller pitches comprising the siting of 6 mobile homes & 6 touring caravans
Dismissed
14/03/2023
Rock Farm, Porchbrook Road, Rock Cross, Kidderminster DY14 9SA
20/0690/FUL
construction of detached dwelling
Dismissed
16/03/2023
Northwood Farm Northwood Lane Bewdley DY12 1AP
0029/REF
Change of use of land from agricultural to the commercial breeding of dogs and replacement of existing kennels and structures with a single kennel block to include office and store room
Appeals A and B - the enforcement notice is quashed.
Appeal C – the appeal is dismissed.
16/03/2023
Land adjoining Hurtle Hill Farm, Heightington, Worcestershire DY12 2YH
0027/ENFORC
Without planning permission the change of use of land from agricultural to a mixed-use comprising agriculture and the stationing of a caravan for residential occupation, construction and installation of associated stable building, solar panels and septic tank.
Dismissed