Land to the R/O the Meadows, Lenham Road, Headcorn, TN27 9LG

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

• The effect of the development on landscape character and the appearance of the land and the surrounding countryside (both as an individual site and cumulatively).
• The effect on the local settled community, including the amenity of neighbouring landowners.
• Whether any identified harm may be suitably mitigated through compliance with planning conditions.
• The existing level of local provision and the need for traveller sites.
• The personal need for a site by the appellants and the current occupiers, taking account of their personal circumstances, human rights (including the best interests of the child), protected characteristics and the availability (or lack) of alternative accommodation.
• Whether the period for compliance stated in the enforcement notice is reasonable and proportionate.

What decided it

The extent to which landscape and visual harm from each part of the sites could be sufficiently reduced by conditions and site-planning to be outweighed by the significant unmet need for Traveller pitches and the personal/Article 8 circumstances of occupiers.

The need for Traveller pitches and the personal/Article 8 circumstances of occupiers outweighed the landscape and visual harm on the small EN1 site and on the least harmful, more compact parts of the EN2 and EN3 sites, but did not outweigh the harm on the remainder of the larger sites, where the balance remained against the development.