[Pete L]

Superficial advantage of airfields are their flatness and known hazards in terms of remediation.

The thing that annoys me is AVDC is always struggling to meet its residential landbank but is exceeding its industrial / commercial landbank by some huge margin. A lot of this is redundant office and shop space local to the town - so not filled with unspecified toxic waste like building on landfill. Some is being used but not enough . If they simply redesignated a proportion of the commercial landbank they'd have plenty of space for houses.

[eltonioni]

Permitted Development Rights for office to residential was designed to help although it is a bit of a regeneration sticking plaster which has resulted in some pretty shoddy residential space being created that's not especially suitable for anyone other than people who intend to move onto somethign more salubrious.

[chevvron]

I do take your point though I'll point you back to the developed footprint. Fairoaks probably has a hundred thousand square feet of roofs, whereas your average horticultural nursery will have a fraction of that, and of course Fairoaks can deliver numbers in one site rather than a number of sites which may or may not happen. We also start getting into sequential tests and all sorts of other viability issues but you're right to say that planning authorities aren't the sharpest organisations. Overall the planning system is broken, which is a shame because it als means that local runways arent valued as economic resources instead of a source of complaints that can be made to go away with a planning consent.

I would guess (and it is only a guess) one of the old nurseries is a similar size to the proposed developed area at Fairoaks.
Look on satellite photos (sorry don't know how to attach an image and don't use microsoft) and you'll see it on the road between Chobham and Sunningdale (Windsor Road) at the junction with Chestnut Lane.

[eltonioni]

I do take your point though I'll point you back to the developed footprint. Fairoaks probably has a hundred thousand square feet of roofs, whereas your average horticultural nursery will have a fraction of that, and of course Fairoaks can deliver numbers in one site rather than a number of sites which may or may not happen. We also start getting into sequential tests and all sorts of other viability issues but you're right to say that planning authorities aren't the sharpest organisations. Overall the planning system is broken, which is a shame because it als means that local runways arent valued as economic resources instead of a source of complaints that can be made to go away with a planning consent.

I would guess (and it is only a guess) one of the old nurseries is a similar size to the proposed developed area at Fairoaks.
Look on satellite photos (sorry don't know how to attach an image and don't use microsoft) and you'll see it on the road between Chobham and Sunningdale (Windsor Road) at the junction with Chestnut Lane.

Got it. Without checking I'd say there's no chance of that ever going to resi any time soon. It looks like greenbelt and there's only a couple of small buildings on site - greenhouses don't count as they aren't viewed as permanent structures. There's an added problem in that the curving road probably prevents adequate vision splays (sight lines) for a junction large enough to take more than 5 houses. Horticultural nurseries are often very good sites but I personally wouldn't look at that one unless there was some particular angle. It would make a super site for a modern mansion though and I'd certainly take a punt at it under PPS7.

Out of interest, what's the modern pile next to it? It's a nice part of the world but I'm always a bit bemused by the amount of sub-par pockets of samey development around there (and the prices!) when we have miles of open moorland at the edge of the city up here, and nothing between here and Manchester except pretty little Peak villages. London has a phenomenally deleterious effect on the property around there.

[chevvron]

Don't mention mansions to me, I've just discovered PP for a new one about 200 yds from my home on the site of stables/paddocks belonging to Ascot Park polo club and right next door to another mansion (Westcroft Park) that's just been flattened and re-built.
The posh place next to the nursery was called Chobham Place until it too was re-developed and is now called Wentworth Place. I don't know if anyone lives there as you never see vehicles going in/out but this area has several large houses owned by middle eastern people who only use them during the flat racing season or just Royal Ascot and I suspect it's one of those.
By the way, the entrance to the old nursery is in Chestnut Lane and I can confirm the view when turning out onto Windsor Road is quite good.

[eltonioni]

The existing nursery entrance wouldn't be suitable for a housing estate so a new one would be needed. Potentially it could be done if the entire junction was remodelled, probably with a roundabout or traffic lights on Windsor Road.

Interesting how you view the modern mansions and I can see your point. I also see the point of building a new generation of fine country houses (after all, the nobs of yore had multiple mansions that they moved around) but the land that they occupy could house an awful lot of regular folk in new settlements, but we rightly in my opinion seem to prefer a market economy than a regulated one. If we can increase the number of planning consents by fixing our broken planning system we'd made great strides into silly house prices caused by severely restricted supply.

[chevvron]

Then there was another in Windlesham, about a mile or two further west which was known as 'Updown Court.' Included 6 swimmimg pools from memory and was on the market originally for £75M!

[Mr Bags]

Don't mention mansions to me, I've just discovered PP for a new one about 200 yds from my home on the site of stables/paddocks belonging to Ascot Park polo club and right next door to another mansion (Westcroft Park) that's just been flattened and re-built.

Are you worried that these new mansions will make your mansion look a bit small?

[chevvron]

Are you worried that these new mansions will make your mansion look a bit small?

If you saw where I live, you wouldn't bother saying that.
Granted the area does have a lot of largish houses but mine is a 3 bed bungalow whch looks out of place now as the bungalows either side have been extended upwards.!