The Coach House Day Nursery – increase the number of children

08-Jun-2009 | Planning Applications

Tanner & Tilley has secured a variation of condition to allow The Coach House Day Nursery, South Gorley in the New Forest to increase the number of children attending to 30. The nursery is a successful community facility and this will allow it to expand so that additional children can benefit from the service it provides.

The application was supported by a Travel Plan setting out how the nursery intends to encourage parents of children to use alternative forms of transport to the private car in order to decrease journeys to the nursery. This promotes sustainable travel choices and encourages parents to car share.

The planning officer’s report concluded that:

• The proposal is considered to be of clear and direct benefit to the local community where the development is proposed;
• It would therefore not be beneficial to re-locate this nursery to a defined new Forest village given that most of the catchment is in the near vicinity;
• The nursery is not located to maximise opportunities by public transport, however it is striving to reduce vehicle movements and has a Green Travel Plan. Plus it has demonstrated that most journeys to and from the nursery are ‘incidental’ i.e. on the way to the employment place of its clientele.
• The proposal would lead to an intensification of the use of the site, however it is not considered that this would cause any demonstrable material harm to the forest given the mitigation measures that the nursery is implementing. There would be no significant harm to neighbours or to the character and appearance of the forest.