Beal’s Hull housing tipped for green light
Although close to 300 objections have been registered, the East Yorkshire housebuilder heads to committee with approval recommended for a hybrid application covering 450 homes.
Hull City Council’s 3 July planning committee meeting will consider a full application for Zone A of the Riverside plan, for land to the west of Richmond Way in Kingswood, covering 214 homes.
There are also outline plans for Zone B, which at this stage comprise 236 homes.
Included in the project are a first phase which would comprise beefing up river defences and introducing an ‘aquagreen’ intended to hold surface water flows and be additional reassurance at times of flooding potential.
Framework Architects is advising on a project that was originally submitted in 2019, with Stantec (Barton Willmore as was) working on planning. LTP and Tetra Tech are also on the team.
Beal land director Chris Murphy said: “Kingswood is a thriving and growing neighbourhood with continuing high demand for new homes.
“This development aims to further enhance the availability of high-quality homes in the area, while also benefitting the whole Kingswood community through the riverbank works.
“Our proposals include two, three and four-bedroom homes to cater for a wide range of homebuyers. In particular, if approved, the development will feature a significant number of two-bedroom homes ideal for first-time buyers, to help more young people get onto the
property ladder.”
Initially, the project was to be considered on 5 June, but consideration was deferred at the applicant’s request, to allow for site visits and for design tweaks to be made.
Flood defence works and an aquagreen are included in the project. Credit: planning documents
The site is around 52 acres in total. Although the site is allocated for housing, it is close to a known wildlife habitat, and as such had attracted a certain amount of attention, even before factoring in issues such as flooding, house designs and meeting the affordable homes requirement.
Formerly known as Riverbank, the site is around four miles of Hull city centre to the north, and is within the Kingswood Area Action Plan’s development area 3. The western boundary of the site is bound by the River Hull.
Another large-scale development, the first 650-home tranche of development at the 1,400-home Wawne View, was cleared in 2021. Strata, Keepmoat and Home Group will all deliver homes here. Other sites are also advancing.
Four distinct areas are mapped out for Zone A: green edge, village green, village court and suburban. Much of the housing as proposed will be three bedrooms: with 70% of Zone B allocated as such. Although Hull is ahead on recent targets for housing delivery, much has been with smaller home sizes.
Two new access points from Richmond Way are included in the first phase.
With Gerald Eve advising on viability, the applicant has posited that with Section 106 and CIL contributions, plus additional costs on flood risk mitigation coupled with a reduction in the ceiling of housing volume considered deliverable, affordable housing provision is not viable at the site, a judgment on which planning officers agree.
Some issues have been raised by the various parts of the council consulted on applications, along with the 277 third party objections filed, much of which bring up flooding, traffic impact and weight on services such as education. However, the site is allocated and Beal, a family-owned firm with a track record of 1,200 homes delivered over 28 years, intends to deliver.
Approval is recommended for the plans, which can be viewed on Hull’s planning portal with the reference 19/01511/FULL.
