NEW homes in a village in the Yate area have been refused planning permission due to a lack of local services.
While Rangeworthy has a pub, school and a takeaway, the village lacks a shop, health centre and post office, causing concerns that future residents would often need to drive.
Nine homes were planned, including six classed as “affordable”, off Wotton Road by Alexander Homes and Development Ltd.
Seven new homes were already given planning permission on an adjacent site.
South Gloucestershire Council refused permission for the nine homes, after councillors on the development management committee debated the application on Thursday, August 1.
The village lies a short distance from the town of Yate, but there is no regular bus service there.
Ben Ponting, a planning agent representing the developer, said: “There are a number of local facilities within walking distance of the site, and Yate railway station is four kilometres away which is considered a cyclable distance taking approximately 14 minutes by bike.
"The Westlink on-demand bus service is available, with stops on Wotton Road.”
One problem is the houses would be located just outside the former settlement boundary.
This line surrounding the village stopped any new houses from being built outside of the boundary, to prevent the village expanding.
But government planning inspectors recently ruled that South Gloucestershire’s settlement boundaries are “out of date”, so they now offer little prevention.
Another issue is the lack of services within the village.
Although there is a school, pub, takeaway and a village hall, there isn’t a shop yet, but one is planned to be built soon.
While Rangeworthy is within cycling distance of Yate, local councillors and residents said future occupiers of the houses would end up driving cars, adding pressure onto the road network.
Councillor Tristan Clark, chair of the committee, said: “This application is outside the settlement boundary of Rangeworthy.
"There has been quite a lot of development outside of the settlement boundary in the past five years.
"Previously that’s because we went through a spell without a five-year housing land supply, back in 2017 and 2018.
"At the moment it’s largely driven by the fact that the settlement boundaries were found by planning inspectors to be out of date.
“There aren’t a great deal of facilities in Rangeworthy itself. There’s a village hall, a church, a public house, and a primary school.
“But essentially for things like health facilities and the weekly shop, you will be travelling outside of Rangeworthy to places like Thornbury and Yate, or further afield, because there isn’t any provision within Rangeworthy itself.
"While this might not seem like a huge amount of houses, every new development that has been approved in the past five years puts more pressure on the village primary school, which is a small school.”
Recent planning applications for homes nearby have been approved, including four new homes just over the road in April.
But councillors said the cumulative effect of incrementally expanding the village was too much for local services to cope with, and affected the rural feel of the area.
Cllr June Bamford added: “People probably will have to use their motor vehicle for employment.
"Probably only the fit are going to cycle into Yate for the railway station, and certainly not in the bad weather.
"I’m just not happy with it.
"It’s almost as if we’re getting more and more development by stealth.
"This is a village, and it’s just creeping and creeping up in development.”
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