Updated plans for the controversial Kytes Drive redevelopment have been submitted following consultation backlash.
Care home provider Anchor submitted a planning application to demolish the estate’s 56 existing bungalows and build 63 houses, with a 71-retirement-home apartment building, to Watford Borough Council in November last year.
The existing homes were built for war veterans after World War 2, and now house many residents who are elderly or have disabilities. Concerns were raised over vulnerable people being forced to temporarily move as well as fears the new homes would be unsuitable.
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Further blows came when Hertfordshire County Council Highways recommended refusal over pedestrian and cycle routes, as well as the data used to model traffic, while the flood authority objected over the lack of an acceptable drainage strategy and flood risk assessment.
Last week, the developer added a whole new set of documentation to the planning portal which makes several small changes to address these issues.
In the updated plans, the homes on the right upon entering the estate now face west instead of east, a cluster behind those now all face north instead of backing onto each other, and a few other homes have been moved slightly.
The apartment building layout has also been tweaked.
Highways also took issue with the use of 2021 traffic data to model the impact on wider traffic flows, due to pandemic disruption, and the developer has undertaken a new count following the comments.
Landscaping has been changed, to extend a footpath, while a cycle lane has been removed and zebra crossings have been replaced with uncontrolled pedestrian crossing points.
A document submitted at the same time in response to the flooding authority concerns says that necessary testing has now been undertaken and the surface water drainage strategy has been updated in line with this.
In its covering letter, the developer said: “The responses to the highways and drainage consultee comments are largely technical, and, following detailed review and receipt of infiltration testing results, it has been confirmed that minimal layout changes are actually required to respond to those comments.”
The plan remains pending borough council consideration.
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