Owens Farm – Update on status – Hook Action Against Over-development

Owens Farm Planning Application (25/02654/OUT): Latest Status & Community Response

Application Timeline & Activity to Date

To give context to where we are, this application has involved an extensive and ongoing process of developer filings, technical challenges, and community pushback:

Initial Application Submission (Ref: 25/02654/OUT): Outline application submitted by Wilbur Developments Ltd for up to 415 dwellings, SANG, and access off Newnham Road.
Early 2026 – Ecology & Biodiversity Responses: Developer submissions filed in March 2026 attempting to answer concerns from the Council’s Biodiversity Officer.
May 2026 – Statutory Agency Pushback: Separate technical notes submitted by the applicant addressing objections raised by the Environment Agency, Network Rail, and Highways (including Highway Technical Note CV.6323.TN.1).
Summer 2026 – Independent Expert & Resident Objections: Submissions logged on behalf of local residents, including detailed engineering and environmental critiques by our independent consultants (Archon) and local experts (Hannah Green and Suzanne Scobie).
August 2026 – Revised NPPF Published: Central government publishes an updated National Planning Policy Framework, introducing revised rules on housing supply and decision-making policies.

November 2026 Update

The applicant (Wilbur Developments) has submitted a Planning Statement Addendum attempting to push through their controversial outline application for up to 415 homes on land at Owens Farm.

The developer’s latest filing tries to dismiss the robust, expert objections previously submitted by our independent community consultants (Archon) and local experts (Hannah Green and Suzanne Scobie), while leaning heavily on the updated August 2026 National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) to bypass local constraints.

Where We Stand:

Our Consultants Stand Firm: The developer’s new technical notes (including flood risk and drainage addendums) rely on theoretical computer models that fail to match the real-world flooding and infrastructure pressures our community experiences.
Core Objections Remain Unshakable: Owens Farm is fundamentally unsuitable for this scale of development. It sits outside the defined settlement boundary, risks severe local coalescence, creates dangerous traffic hazards along narrow rural routes (Newnham Road), and places an unsustainable burden on local services and flood-sensitive headwaters.

What We Are Doing:

Our action group, alongside local parish councils, is actively fighting back against this developer-driven addendum. We are submitting a robust, unified community response to hold the line and ensure the Planning Officer addresses the real engineering and spatial flaws of this scheme rather than accepting the applicant’s spin.