Rural Service Centres

15.2 Six settlements in the borough are defined as Rural Service Centres which provide an important secondary service role to their local population and their immediately surrounding rural hinterland. These are Barrow, Clare, Ixworth, Chedburgh, Stanton and Kedington. These villages either have all or most of the following facilities: local employment, shopping facilities, a primary school, community and recreation facilities and health care. Two of these settlements also have libraries, police stations and fire stations. All the Rural Service Centres accord with the criteria of development strategy of the County Structure Plan and the facilities that they provide are not generally available in other villages in the borough.

15.3 The Rural Service Centres have a role to play in acting as a focus for day-to-day needs for local communities. The Borough Council supports this role and this Plan seeks to reinforce the status by providing for modest but balanced growth during the Plan period. The principles of sustainability will be applied when considering the scale and nature of development in each centre.

Vision for the Rural Service Centres

The Rural Service Centres of Barrow, Clare, Ixworth, Chedburgh and Stanton will accommodate levels of growth that reflect their role as local centres for services for settlements in the rural area.

15.4 Whilst Kedington has been identified as a Rural Service Centre, this Local Plan does not allocate any housing or employment sites in this village. The Borough Council has commenced the preparation of its Local Development Framework, which will eventually replace this Local Plan, and this will include a review of potential housing or employment sites in Kedington.

15.5 Limited housing growth in the Rural Service Centres will help to keep the viability of these settlements without having a bad impact on the local environment. At the same time, it is recognised that opportunities for keeping and improving local employment opportunities must not be lost. It is anticipated that around 6% of the borough's new housing development during the Plan period will take place in these centres.

15.6 The urban capacity study has identified limited opportunities for the development of brownfield sites in the Rural Services Centres for housing. These sites can make a positive contribution to the growth of the settlement and thus limit the requirement to release greenfield sites.

POLICY RA1: BROWNFIELD ALLOCATIONS - RURAL SERVICE CENTRES

The following brownfield sites are allocated for residential development during the period 2004-2016.

An access road to the former fireworks site, Chedburgh is required to facilitate development, the route of which is identified on the Proposals Map.

15.7 In selecting greenfield sites for housing development, the Borough Council has had close regard to their sustainability. It is considered that the sites selected for development can maintain a balanced community, have a minimum impact on the environment and provide a sustainable level of growth for the settlement.

POLICY RA2: GREENFIELD ALLOCATIONS - RURAL SERVICE CENTRES

The following greenfield sites, as shown on the Proposals Map, are allocated for residential development:

Residential development on these sites will only be permitted after the date shown.

At land off Crown Lane, Ixworth the amount of land available for development, location of uses, access arrangements, design and landscaping will be informed by a masterplan for the site. Applications for planning permission will only be considered once the masterplan has been agreed by the local planning authority. The masterplan should be prepared in accordance with the content of the concept statement for the site.

An access road to land off Crown Lane, Ixworth is required to facilitate development, the route of which is identified on the Proposals Map.

At Clare, developers will be expected to enter into a legal obligation to contribute to transport initiatives in Clare, including the provision of off-street car parking.

Land to the east of Grafton Villa within that allocated in Policy RA2(a) is to enable access to be provided to the site from Hepworth Road and hence direct to the A143 without the need to go through the village.