Council loses say on Tibberton homes plan after missing deadline

A plan to build luxury homes on fields in picturesque Tibberton near Worcester was put forward almost a year ago but a decision will now be made by the government’s planning inspectors instead of Wychavon District Council which missed its 13-week deadline.

More than 120 objections were made against the plan by residents who said the plan was “inappropriate” and “far too big” but they appear to have gone to waste with the council now forced to give up its right to rule on the controversial move, with a decision now left in the hands of inspectors.

The district council can agree with developers over extensions to the time it needs to take to make a decision but luxury housebuilder Mactaggart and Mickel have turned to the planning inspector over ‘non-determination’ because of the delay.

Usually, housing developers appeal to the planning inspector over a decision the council’s planning department has made but sometimes developers go above the council if they have been left waiting for a verdict.

In April last year, Mactaggart and Mickel requested a ‘screening opinion’ from Wychavon District Council, which meant a brief plan was reviewed over its environmental credentials before a proper planning application was submitted later on.

PLAN: An artist's impression of the proposed homes in Tibberton (Image: Mactaggart and Mickel)

The move was met with criticism from residents in Tibberton who said adding 100 homes and hundreds of cars to the village would be a “fiasco” and “destroy Tibberton's village identity.”

Many residents are also concerned by the extra traffic that 100 new homes would bring.

A ‘tight’ grade II-listed bridge in the village is already on the verge of collapsing according to residents, with ‘weak bridge’ road signs often not dissuading coach and lorry drivers from using the narrow route.

With queues already so bad, villagers say they are forced to take detours to avoid the “crumbling” bridge to get home, likening the congestion to rush-hour Birmingham city centre on busier days.

On top of that, sewage workers spent 36 hours in Tibberton during a cold and dark January following a failure at Severn Trent’s pumping station in the village’s Plough Road, a stone’s throw from the proposed 100-home site.

The failure, which forced workers to use four emergency tankers to manually pump human waste from the village, led to residents saying they feared Tibberton would be “swimming in sewage” if the council allowed the new homes and the village increased in size by a third.