PLANNERS are being asked for permission to double the number of houses to be built on the site of the old Flouch pub close to the A628.
The pub was a landmark in its heyday and was used for many years as a restaurant before closing and being demolished to make way for five new homes.
There have been several planning applications for the site since 2011 and permission for houses in a courtyard style development are now being built.
But Barnsley Council is now being asked for permission to put up five more within the grounds of the pub, on what was previously its car park.
The site is within the green belt, but because it has been previously developed the normal tight rules surrounding development are relaxed.
Developers describe the site, which was alongside the old A628 Manchester Road before that section was redeveloped, as being ‘semi rural’ and say the development would involve “additional landscaping in the form of open space that will retain a sense of openness, enhance the visual appearance of the site and avoid any loss of amenity to residents opposite the site to the west of Whamms Road.”
When the Flouch was operational, it had commercial kitchens, a bar and ten en suite bedrooms, with foul water stored in a septic tank and then discharged into a watercourse.
The new proposal is to use “a modern packaged sewage treatment plant to treat foul drainage from the site and utilise the existing outfall.”
Planning documents state: “The current proposals allow for additional development to improve the efficient use of the site by providing infill development of a previously developed site without impacting upon the openness of the green belt or the amenity of local residents.
“The proposals are for five dwellings with garages to increase the total on the site to ten dwellings.
“There is a good mix of small and larger dwellings and a relatively low density which is appropriate to the location.”
If the new homes are accepted by planners, it would mean an increase in floorspace on the site of around 11 per cent above that provided by the Flouch.
Because only ten homes are being proposed, they would not trigger the need to include affordable homes.
A decision will be made later on whether to approve the development.
