Housing planned for pub car park

APPROVAL DESPITE LEIGHAM OBJECTIONS

- ALISON STEPHENSON

DESPITE more than 100 letters of objection and not a single item of correspondence supporting the idea, part of a pub’s car park in Plymouth is to be replaced by housing.

A third of the car park of The Windmill pub, in Leigham, will be taken up by seven new ‘social’ properties, after city planners decided the urgent need for homes outweighs the loss of parking.

Plymouth City Council’s planning committee was told around 7,000 people are on the city’s housing waiting list, including 400 living in temporary accommodation. Plymouth Community Homes (PCH) now has permission to build on the council-owned land.

The space was not earmarked for development, but has been identified as a “windfall site” to speed up construction of affordable homes. Over the next five years, 5,000 homes are expected to be built in the city to help address the housing crisis.