Planning permission has been granted for a development of 90 homes on the south-western edge of Potton.

Central Bedfordshire Council has approved the CALA Homes plan on the condition that the developer contributes more than £380,000 to the community as part of a section 106 agreement.

More than half of this will go towards lower school education, with money also going to early years education, healthcare amenities, playing pitches and the RSPB.

CALA’s Phillip Wright said: “We are delighted that our plans for Potton have been approved.

“We consulted with residents so we could create a development that would meet their and the council’s expectations, and look forward starting work on the site in the new year.”

CALA’s plan for the 3.65-hectare site is for a mix of one-bedroom flats and semi-detached and detached homes with two to five bedrooms each. Thirty-five per cent of the new housing will be designated as affordable.

The blueprint includes a children’s play area, open green space and a new footpath and cycle route.

The development will be accessed via a single road, and CALA has pledged to plant native trees, shrubs and hedges across the site to complement the existing foliage along the site’s boundaries.

The planning application is one of numerous submitted for Potton over the past year, with critics saying the amount of proposed housing was unworkable and risked fundamentally changing the town’s character.

Councillor Adam Zerny – who represents Potton on Central Beds Council as an independent – told the Comet in February that the town was “being forced to accept development after development purely because Central Beds Council haven’t managed a sufficient supply of housing and don’t want to defend the town.”

A plan submitted by Hallam Land Management to build up to 186 homes north of Sandy Road was withdrawn in April after 129 out of 132 representations – including two petitions – were opposed.

Gladman Developments’ application to build 85 homes on open countryside off Biggleswade Road, south of the town, is currently at appeal after Central Beds Council refused consent.

The council maintains that the development fails to satisfy “the environmental strand of sustainability”.