The 25.74ha site is located outside the green belt on the western edge of Stone, north of Eccleshall Road. It is immediately west of the recent Udall Grange development and is bounded to the north and west by land previously safeguarded for future HS2 expansion.
The site is not located within the green belt. It therefore provides an opportunity to meet future housing and infrastructure needs in light of significantly increased housing targets from government, without the need to release green belt land for development.
Family-owned five-star housebuilder, Bloor Homes, is preparing an outline planning applications for a landscape-led development of high-quality family and affordable homes, a new first school, and extensive landscaped public open spaces on land north of Eccleshall Road, west of Stone.
The proposed new neighbourhood would create a network of new walking and cycling routes set within green corridors on land that is currently inaccessible to the public. The retention of existing mature trees and woodland, alongside extensive landscape planting would significantly increase tree cover across the site. There is also the potential to restore historic hedgerows that have previously been lost to agriculture.
It is envisaged that the development would be designed with frontage homes featuring a bespoke Staffordshire design code being produced by Bloor Homes informed by character studies of a range of Staffordshire towns and villages.
A package of improvements to local highways infrastructure is also proposed, including significant enhancements to increase capacity at the Walton roundabout, and improved active travel links along Eccleshall Road.
The site is located outside the greenbelt and occupies a highly sustainable location on the edge of the settlement boundary of Stone. It was submitted via Stafford Borough Council’s latest Call for Sites as ST014 and promoted through the Council’s review of the Local Plan.
Local planning authorities are required by Government to update their Local Plans every five years. The current part 1 Local Plan for the Borough was adopted in 2014 and as such has now fallen significantly out of date. Progress on producing a Local Plan Review for the Borough was abandoned earlier this year following changes to national planning policy.
Changes to the National Planning Policy Framework announced by the new Government in late 2024 has doubled the number of homes Stafford Borough will need to deliver from 358 to 749 homes per year. This has left Stafford Borough Council with less than a three year housing land supply (Government requires council’s to be able to demonstrate a five year supply of housing land).
With continued uncertainty on the progress of a new Local Plan, and significantly increased pressure to deliver new homes, Bloor Homes is now preparing to bring forward an outline planning application while continuing to promote the site through the emerging Local Plan. This approach will enable the early delivery of much-needed new homes at a sustainable location, providing crucial community infrastructure in terms of a new school and highways improvements.
The site is located within Flood Zone 1 of the Environment Agency’s flood map for planning. This means it is considered to be at the lowest risk of fluvial flooding.
In terms of surface water drainage, the Environment Agency’s map suggests localised spots of surface water flooding on the site. The proposals will incorporate a sustainable drainage system (SUDS) that will manage surface water drainage from the development, delivering betterment to the current situation, in addition to providing habitat enhancement through the creation of wetland features.
It is proposed that vehicular access to the new neighbourhood would be provided by two new ghost-island priority junctions with Eccleshall Road. These will be designed in liaison with the local highways authority.
A 3.0m shared footway/cycleway route is proposed, providing a continuous route from the site frontage with Eccleshall Road to the existing shared footway/cycleway starting east of Longhope Drive which will also be enhanced.
The development will deliver significant engineering enhancements to Walton roundabout. This includes increase capacity of the roundabout junction and the provision of signalised crossing points to significantly improve crossing facilities for Non-Motorised Users (NMU).
The junction in its existing form is anticipated to be operating over capacity by 2031, with significant queues and delays, even without new housing development taking place.
The proposed enhancements go beyond simply mitigating the impact of the proposed development – it provides a solution that significantly reduces queues and delays across the junction – delivering an improvement over the current operation of the junction even factoring in future development.
The planning application will be informed by extensive technical studies, including a robust Transport Assessment. This report will assess the highway safety and capacity of the surrounding highway network to ensure that the development can be safely accommodated.
Up to 40% of the new homes will be affordable homes. Bloor Homes is always happy to discuss local occupancy criteria for affordable homes with the local planning authority, if this is something that is identified as a local priority. This would ensure that people on lower incomes with connections to Stone would be prioritised for affordable housing.
Specialist Older People’s Housing schemes provide homes dedicated for older people with a lower age limit applied. Bloor Homes has delivered this in other developments, including a recent development in Newport, Shropshire. It is proposed that the development at Stone could include this type of accommodation, providing an opportunity for older people to downsize into a more manageable property in a specialist environment prioritising accessibility and access to services such as restaurant facilities.
The new homes at Stone will be built to Future Homes Standard, meaning a gas-free development with new homes incorporating air source heat pumps, PV cells, uprated insulation and EV charging infrastructure. This will deliver a neighbourhood of net zero carbon-ready homes.
The new homes at Stone will be built to Net Zero Carbon standards, incorporating solar panels, air source heat pumps and uprated insulation. They would become operationally Net Zero Carbon once the electricity grid supply has switched to 100% renewable and zero carbon sources.
The site is currently dominated by intensively farmed arable land, which is of low ecological value. The vast majority of habitats of higher ecological value within the site, such as mature trees, hedgerows, etc. will be retained as part of the proposals, buffered and incorporated into green infrastructure which will include extensive areas of public green open space, biodiversity areas and a significant increase in tree and landscape planting across the site. It is anticipated that the development will deliver at least 10% net gain in biodiversity.
No, the development is intended to be shaped by the existing landscape, including the retention of existing woodland, mature trees and the majority of hedgerows, with additional landscape planting significantly increasing tree cover across the site.
We are preparing an outline planning application. This is the first stage in the planning process which sets out broad principles of the development. If the outline planning application is approved by Stafford Borough Council, we will then need to prepare more detailed planning applications for each phase of development. Depending on the time taken in the planning process, we envisage that construction could start on the first phase at some point in 2027, with development being delivered in a number of phases over subsequent years.
This will be determined by the local planning authority in consultation with the local education authority. They will determine a trigger point at which we need to facilitate this important infrastructure. As a family-owned business, Bloor Homes’ focus is on quality and reputation. We have a proud track record of delivering high quality developments, including the delivery of key infrastructure in a timely manner.