Housing plans for Belford and Lowick set for approval

New homes in two north Northumberland villages look set to get the green light later today.
The Blue Bell Hotel in Belford.The Blue Bell Hotel in Belford.
The Blue Bell Hotel in Belford.

As part of a very busy agenda, members of the North Northumberland Local Area Council are recommended to approve housing schemes in Belford and Lowick.

In Belford, the application is for nine new houses and a 14-unit camping/caravan site on land behind the historic Blue Bell Hotel.

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Moorlands Holdings North East, the hotel’s owner, wants to build five three-storey homes, cut into the hillside, on what used to be part of the hotel’s kitchen garden but has been unused for more than 20 years. A further four homes are planned in a field bounded to the east by St Mary’s churchyard, reached by an extended access road.

The lower half of the field, north and west of St Cuthbert’s Drive, would host seven glamping pods, four touring caravan pitches and three static caravan sites, as well as a toilet/shower block on the footprint of an existing derelict farm building which would be demolished.

Belford Parish Council has objected due to its concerns over the access, suitability of the site and the visual impact on the historic coaching inn and St Mary’s Church.

If approved, a coastal mitigation contribution from the applicant of £600 per home and £350 per camp/caravan unit, totalling £10,300, would be secured via a section 106 legal agreement.

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Also before councillors is a hybrid application for land east of Lambton Avenue and Kyloe View, in Lowick.

Full permission is being sought for four homes and outline approval sought for up to 20 houses, three or four of which would be affordable. It has sparked an objection from the parish council and eight residents, while there are also six letters of support for the scheme.

Another outline bid is to be determined for Acklington where Northumberland Estates wants to build 21 dwellings, including four affordable homes, on land north-west of Acklington Drive.

Again this proposal has been opposed by the parish council, which considers it ‘a significant increase to the size of the village (25 per cent)’, where a scheme for 22 homes was narrowly approved by the North Northumberland Local Area Council in February.

Ben O’Connell

Local Democracy Reporter