A proposal to build up to 140 homes in Stone has gone in to Stafford Borough Council.
Developer Taylor Wimpey is seeking outline consent for housing on land at the edge of Walton, off Marlborough Road. The plans fall under application number 25/41057/OUT and cover residential use, with access through Marlborough Road. All other details, such as the design and layout, would follow later if permission is granted.
Concerns raised at consultation
A public consultation was held in May at Walton Community Centre. Residents stopped by to look over the plans and speak to the developer’s team.
Poppy Bromage, land manager at Taylor Wimpey, said:
“The proposal’s 40% affordable housing is policy compliant. The main point of access is through Marlborough Road.
“The main feedback for us to take on board is the impact on infrastructure and the wider site network. There have been positive comments on drainage and people have been helpful informing us of their concerns.”
Not everyone left reassured.
Walton resident Linda Willett said:
“There’s a lot of people who aren’t happy about it. We have lived here for 53 years and they have tried seven times – it has always been turned down because of access onto that field. They have only got one service area at the top of Marlborough Road.
“Lots of construction vehicles would be coming up Pirehill Lane. To expect people to put up with that for three years is not fair, and we already can’t get an appointment at the doctor’s surgery for a month.”
Neighbour Joy Galvin shared similar worries.
“I know we need more houses, but we already have over 1,000 new houses with planning permission at Udall Grange north of Eccleshall Road. There is also the Bloor Homes proposal for up to 505 new homes off Eccleshall Road and another one off Eccleshall Road for up to 240 new homes, submitted by Richborough Estates.
“Are they going to be building them all at the same time? How many construction vehicles are we going to have to put up with, it’s just getting ridiculous.”
Next steps for the scheme
If outline approval is granted, a reserved matters application would be needed to finalise details such as housing type, layout and landscaping before any work could start.
All documents for the scheme can be viewed on Stafford Borough Council’s planning portal under reference 25/41057/OUT.
7 comments
Jean lowe
I concur with the previous comments. The main concern as I see it is access via Marlborough Road. When this estate was built the roads were suitable for the amount of cars at that time. This is no longer the case given the increase in residents vehicles many of which are parked on the road and also the many types of delivery vehicles. Congestion at peak times is already problematic and getting off the estate can be almost impossible. Building on this site has already been challenged by residents on several occasions.
Janine Hill
NO. We cannot cope with any more houses in Walton. We do not have the infrastructure. There are too many already
Linda Weaver
Stone is a small canal town with limited amenities, schools are bursting at the seems, traffic is an absolute nightmare and we’re supposed to accept even more homes taking away our greenbelt areas which make Stone such a beautiful place. This must be a NO. The people of Stone have had enough. We must make a stand and save our town.
Jane Jones
An absolute NO to this proposal again . We can’t get off the estate as it is with all of the new development on Eccleshall Road. We are trapped on the estate at school times. The danger to children if heavy duty contract vehicles are put on the estate would be immense as there are 2 schools here. We need infrastructure first before any more housing if we have to have any at all. There are already houses for sale in Stone that are pre-built and Meaford Power station land just sitting there. An absolute NO!
Kent Bailey
This is not needed and the Walton infrastructure cannot cope with the extra traffic
Amanda
Living in Redfern Road for 27 years we strongly object to this proposal. I can see we will have a lot of noise and disruption as they get built and then ongoing noise and traffic from all the new people who would be in the area. No new facilities are ever built alongside all these developments. This is a quiet area of the town and as we have had MANY new homes built in Stone I don’t see the need for more.
Tracy
Stone does not need more houses.
The access to this would bring a dangerous amount of disruption to the residents on Marlborough road and surrounding schools. The traffic around Walton is already extremely heavy and this would make it worse, I have seen lots of near misses with the volume of cars and children getting to and from school now, so if the application for more homes was granted this would just be horrendous for all involved