Page 6 - Ashbourne 08-02-2021

Context
Care will be needed to ensure that the development proposals and the infrastructure delivery are aligned. The scheme will need to:
• show the road is necessary to make the development acceptable;
• demonstrate that the road serves a wider planning purpose;
• that the road relates to the proposed development;
• prove that the road fairly and reasonably relates to the scale of the development; and
• that the scheme is reasonable in all other respects.
The fine line - the delivery of the road is necessary to make the development acceptable, but providing it in such a way that it also accommodates the through traffic and relieves the town remains “fairly and reasonably” related in scale to the development.
In reality, it should be easy to show that the consequences of the development, and the road that goes with it, will inevitably see traffic re-route from the town centre and use the new road. To ensure that this road operated efficiently and safely, it would need to be “sized” to accommodate this traffic.
The bigger issue then is that this means that the delivery of the road is consequential on the delivery of housing – meaning that, in planning terms, there must be a planning justification for the delivery of the housing in this location, and at this time.
We are not sure that this is the case.