Hope for Grantham’s garden village after govt wades in to water row

Plans to build more than 3,000 homes in Lincolnshire have been boosted by a government-brokered deal with utilities firm Anglian Water.

The department for rural affairs, otherwise known as DEFRA, has stepped in to mediate between developers on Grantham’s Spitalgate Heath urban extension and the water company, a move it says will “unlock” development of around 3,400 homes on the 500-acre site.

Established last year, DEFRA’s Water Delivery Taskforce has a remit to ensure that water companies deliver on promised investments to provide water and wastewater capacity. It says it aims to ensure that water availability and wastewater capacity are not a constraint on growth.

Anglian had lodged several objections to the Spitalgate Heath scheme, which was delegated for approval at outline stage by South Kestevan’s planning committee in 2019, pending a Section 106 agreement.

In response to updated proposals lodged by the scheme’s backers Buckminster Estates earlier this year, the firm said the development was “unsustainable” due to Marston Water Recycling Centre lacking the capacity to deal with wastewater generated by the new homes – despite the scale of the project reducing by 300 houses from its original plans for 3,700.

Anglian requested Buckminster completed a pre-development enquiry in order to identify where the scheme would connect to foul drainage infrastructure, to which it said it would “review and respond appropriately”.

However DEFRA says an intervention by the taskforce has moved those discussions along, with a potential new water recycling centre now in the offing for Grantham, plus the existing construction of a strategic pipeline and 20-million-litre storage reservoir.

The “garden village” development, one of 33 smaller new communities approved by the UK Government across the country, also includes 300,000 sq ft of employment space, and 86,000 sq ft for the local centre.

Mark Thurston, Chief Executive Officer at Anglian Water said the discussion were an “encouraging step forward” in helping them to deliver infrastructure upgrades for new developments.

“We are working with regulators to chart the path between environmental compliance and supporting growth, and through our work with Defra’s Water Delivery Taskforce, Anglian Water is working with developers and local planning authorities at an earlier stage in the process to enable large scale developments of over 500 homes,” he said.

According to Buckminster, the first homes are expected to be ready by 2028.

Plans and further information relating to the Spitalgate garden village project are available on South Kestevan’s online planning portal using reference: S14/2169