How to find out what a developer might do with land?

[scarfattack]

I'm looking at potentially offering on a house. However trying to research a few things first and wondered if anyone could guide me.
House has a massive garden which backs on to woodland. A smallish plot but beautiful and a key selling point for me. There is a housing development close to the house on the other side of this woodland. The developers own the woodland. Their plans show no houses are to be built on the woodland. However I can't seem to find whether or not this means it'll be left alone or if it may be altered in some other way.
I called the council conservation department and the site isn't protected and no tpo's are on any of the trees. The developers are one of the big ones so no contact info or any way to investigate. The architect drawings/plans are by a company that doesn't seem to exist in solid form so no one to contact there either. How can I find out if there are plans to make any changes to this woodland? The meetings on it were 3 years ago so no minutes to access from the council website. Any ideas? If I wanted to buy it off them could this be possible?

What is the land allocated for in the Council's Development Plan? The Proposal Map should be on their web site. If the wood/trees aren't protected, and the site is within a designated settlement or built up area, it could be developed in the future. If the site is designated as countryside or similar, development is less likely. But there are no guarantees unless you own the lad.

It will be built on, even if they tell you they won’t, they will.

If the land is owned by a large developer, the chances are they are keeping it in their land bank so it can be built on in due course.

@Seeline the development plan shows it as woods. It is a small bit that juts out of a huge development area. It lies between a big supermarket on the left and a street of houses to the right. The house we are looking at is one of two that are positioned below it. Above it is the new houses. It looks like it's to stay as woods but my worry is just because it's not marked for a housing site it is used for something else.
@Bettyboojustdointhedo this is exactly my worry! They're almost untouchable. EA reckons they'll keep the peace by leaving it and possibly in a few years might sell it to us if it doesn't have any use. It's a very small area all things considered and we'd only want it to protect it. Not to develop ourselves.
Does anyone know how I could even start to find out any potential plans? Is it applying to council for historic meeting minutes? I considered contacting a councillor who opposed the whole thing as they could have some details that maybe could help. Do you think the conveyancing process would turn up details like that? Thanks in advance

Conveyancing can throw up potential uses and or permissions for land but whenever and wherever you buy you're advised than any land around you may be built on. Likewise, views may disappear as development happens. All anyone can ever do is buy if they know they'd still enjoy living there if the surrounds changed.

This is the outline of the area being developed. The yellow bit is the woodland area and is not marked for houses.

What their existing plans are won't help you though. If a developer owns it and it's not protected, they could put in for planning for additional development in the future.

EA is bound to say that, he has no actual idea what they'll do really.

What's the large building on the other side of the woodland? Might be worth looking at the planning docs for that and seeing whether leaving the woodland to screen the houses from whatever the large building is was a planning condition.

You might like to look out for bats, newts et al. It might be being kept as a place to relocate species to or be unsuited to development . Do you have the proposed site plans for the development, does it look like there would be potential for access?

A search will only show any planning applications which have been submitted. The Council would not reveal any confidential discussions that may have been had with developers prior to any further applications being submitted.
That plan looks like one submitted as part of the application rather than part of the Council's formal Development (or Local) Plan. Look on the council website under the planning policy section. You need the Proposals Map to see how the Council have allocated the land.

Gosh if it’s anything like round hear they’ll put about 50 houses on it when worst case scenario you might expect 10.

What is the green demarkation showing?

You said in your OP that they key selling point of the house was the woodland, if you would not buy the house if it already had houses built on the woodland then my advice to you would be to walk away. Even if there are no plans now you will constantly have that worry in the back of your mind all the time, is it worth the angst? Also it might not be houses they build it could be used for commercial purposes so bear that in mind. Also are the current owners party to information you don’t know, is that why they are selling?

Assume it will be redeveloped. No other reason for the developer to acquire the land and no restrictions or protections to stop it happening. Personally I wouldn't expect to be able to stop it so would be assuming it will be housing when deciding whether to buy, unfortunately.

Thank you everyone. @Seeline @wowfudge and @LIZS @Herculesupatree - really good points. @BettyBooJustDoinTheDoo you are right too but I think it's worth more digging before I walk away.
I definitely don't think houses will be put on it. They wouldn't really be able to fit anything decent in there. If the trees were cleared any house they built would overlook an ugly leisure centre and the back gardens of dozens of houses. BUT what else could happen to it...that's what i want to investigate.
So the large building is a leisure centre. Sits slightly lower than houses on the right of it and there is sufficient mature growth to screen that from view.
The green outline is phase one which is already underway. I've added a pic of the finished proposal for phase one. The yellow bit is again the woods and has been left as woods in these drawings.

Sorry pic is illustrative of whole development, not phase one.

scarfattack I work for a company that builds lots of houses. Trust me, developers will build anywhere. We often change our mind about what we'll build based on current climate as well so it really won't help even if you did know what this developer was thinking now. You can only buy the house if you're happy that the woodland might go.

If they're developers that will just be one phase of their plans. So they would probably leave woodland to last as this would need a lot of ground works. There are always multiple phases for larger sites

Also if it's anything like Bristol then they won't care if it has an ugly outlook.. If there's land to build they will build. We have flats and houses in a retail park in one part of South Bristol overlooking b and q. Next. Pizza hut. A gym. B and m. And the range lol!!