Burstow Gardens

This scheme owes much to Burstow Parish Council who responding to concerns expressed by the local community; kick started the project with a local housing needs survey, identified potential sites and promoted community engagement.

Despite a growing understanding and consensus on the need to provide homes for current and future generations within our own communities; development is not always welcomed by all.

With the planning arguments being decided in favour of the application from English Rural and permission granted, further objections came in the form of legal challenges.

The most serious questioned the Parish Council’s entitlement to exercise their powers of sale of the deregulated allotment land and required the judges to make an assessment of what was in the minds of the law makers framing the Commons Act of 1876 and Allotments Act of 1925.

Fortunately, Burstow Parish Council took the brave decision to defend its actions and by implication those of many other Parish Council’s, which could have been called into question; winning the arguments at the High Court and again at the Court of Appeal.

Inevitably, the process introduced delays to the original timetable, but now completed the new homes provide a range of 1,2 and 3 bedroom properties and hopefully a pool of budding new allotment gardeners.