A developer has won an appeal to build 26 homes despite the planning inspector saying it “would not provide acceptable living conditions”. 

The new homes are proposed to be built on land off Sandy Lane in Cambridge, including four four-bedroom houses and 22 five-bedroom houses, all of which are proposed to be sold as private housing. 

The developer, Sandy Lane 2021 Limited, offered nine flats to be provided as ‘affordable homes’ on land it owns next to the site. 

The appeal was lodged with the planning inspectorate by the developer before Cambridge City Council considered the application. 

When the application was presented to the planning committee at a meeting last year, planning officers recommended the council should support refusal of the plans, which councillors voted to agree with. 

In the council’s statement to the planning inspectorate, it said: “The proposal was considered to create a substandard accommodation for future occupiers; a poor public realm with an under provision of public open space; overprovision of car parking and inadequate cycle facilities; and under provision of affordable housing.” 

However, the developer argued that the latest plans would create a “high quality and more efficient layout” than the previous proposals for the land. 

A “patchwork” of previous planning applications had come forward and been approved to redevelop the land. Under these permissions 29 homes could be built on the site. 

In the planning inspector’s decision statement, they recognised there were valid concerns about the living standard some of the proposed new homes would offer. 

They said the level of natural light into the rooms of some of the houses would be “poor” and would create “gloomy spaces”. 

The inspector said some of the dining rooms proposed would be “oppressively subterranean” and that the “poor” daylight levels would be “detrimental to the living conditions of future occupiers”. 

They also said the design of some of the proposed gardens was “impractical and odd”, reducing their usefulness. 

The inspector said the “harm” of this was “exacerbated” by the lack of any “usable communal open space” where children could play within the wider scheme. 

They said they shared the council’s landscape officer’s opinion that it would be “somewhat sterile and gentrified areas”. 

The inspector said the development “would not provide acceptable living conditions for future occupiers”. 

The planning inspector agreed with the council that the proposals for affordable housing did not follow its policies by failing to provide 40 per cent affordable housing on site. 

It said: “The housing mix proposed, both the affordable and general market, would not be particularly balanced, resulting in large, high value market housing at one end of the spectrum and small apartments adjacent to the busy ring road at the other end. 

“An opportunity to secure a good housing mix and balance of housing across the Sandy Lane site has been missed.” 

The inspector’s report said the proposed cycle storage in the basement was “low-grade” and would not help encourage people to use bikes, and said it was overall “poor in such a sustainable location”. 

The inspector also said that the proposed 52 car parking spaced would “significantly exceed” the maximum parking standard of one space per house. 

However, the planning inspector said the “patchwork” of existing planning consents for the site did create a potential alternative scheme. 

They said they had to give the fallback position “significant weight” in the decision making process. 

The inspector said they believed the existing permissions would result in “significant harm”, and would create similar issues to the present plans. 

They said: “Were it to be implemented it would be unequivocally of greater harm and conflict with the current development plan compared to the appeal proposal.” 

Due to the possibility this ‘more harmful’ development could be built, the inspector made the decision to allow the appeal and grant permission for the new homes.