Councillors refuse proposals for 263 homes and care home off Station Road

Outline plans for 263 new homes, a care home and a fishing centre off Station Road in North Hykeham have been unanimously rejected.

The multi-mullion-pound proposals were tabled at a North Kesteven District Council planning meeting on the evening of Tuesday, January 26.

As previously reported, the major development by applicants Leafbridge Limited would be located on the former Lincoln Castings landfill site on the west side of Station Road, just north of the Lincoln to Nottingham railway line.

It shares a common boundary with the (now closed) North Hykeham tip and sand and gravel operations, behind which lies Teal Park.

A number of concerns were highlighted in the planning report, including the potential noise and relationship with Teal Park, which (with the potential for 24 hour operation at business sites) is regarded as a “bad neighbour”.

Neighbouring businesses also opposed the application.

Members decided to refuse the application, making the point that there were too many uncertainties within the proposals.

Leader of the North Kesteven District Council, Marion Brighton, told the meeting: “There are far too many unknowns about this application.”

She and other members were anxious that the application would deprive North Hykeham of a critical area of land that already had consent for employment use. The principle was well established through two previous approvals for employment uses, with land for economic development being in high-demand locally, an area highlighted as critical to the wider area’s growth ambitions.

It has always been the expressed wish of the applicants and planners to keep the housing and enterprise aspects of the site separate, on either side of the railway line to avoid a conflict of uses given the potential for increased noise from the adjacent Teal Park employment park.

Members also felt that this particular aspect of the site would not be conducive to residential amenity, given the need for substantial acoustic barriers up to 8m high, and the uncertainty surrounding the nature of the ultimate industrial uses at nearby Teal Park.

Councillor John Money told the meeting: “It does not make common sense to build houses so near to a former tip.”

As the council seeks to encourage inward investment into the wider LN6 business growth area, it will continue to talk to businesses, landowners and agents about the potential for future development of an appropriate scale and nature.