Land adjacent 1 Whitehouse Cottages Bourne Road, West Bergholt, COLCHESTER, CO6 3EW

erection of one attached dwelling

Authority: Colchester Borough Council
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: residential · Minor Dwellings
Inspector: Chamberlain G

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

The effects of the proposal on the character and appearance of the area
The effects of the proposal on highway safety
The effects of the proposal on the provision of sport and recreational infrastructure and community facilities

What decided it

The harm to character and appearance of the area combined with the failure to demonstrate safe highway access outweighed the modest benefits of a single dwelling windfall development.

The adverse impacts on character and appearance and highway safety, together with unmitigated effects on community infrastructure, significantly and demonstrably outweighed the modest benefits of housing delivery and economic support from a single dwelling, even accepting a 4.7-year housing land supply.

Framework references: 12, 110, 57

Plan policies cited: Policy UR2 of the CS, Policy DP1 of the DPD, Policy DP17 of the DPD, Policy PP10 of the West Bergholt Neighbourhood Plan, Policy SD2 of the CS, Policy DP3 of the DPD

Read the decision letter on the Inspectorate’s site

The main issues and the deciding factor are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.

What an account adds

Draw a red line around your site and the appraisal follows.

Heritage. Listed buildings by grade and distance, conservation areas, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, heritage at risk.
Landscape and environment. Green belt, national parks and national landscapes, SSSIs, ancient woodland, SPA, SAC and Ramsar sites, nutrient catchments.
Flooding. Flood zones 2 and 3, surface water, and both again with climate change.
Transport. The 800 metre station catchment and service frequency, bus stops with their weekday frequency, the cycle network, and the Framework’s transport tests measured for the site.

Then the development plan position, the housing land supply as an Inspector last accepted it, and every appeal decided around the site with its letter.

Every English appeal since 2016, with the letter behind it wherever the Inspectorate published one. Searched by meaning as well as by words, with the key case law counted live across the letters.

Casework that chases the deadlines. Applications, appeals and conditions with their statutory dates.

The judgement stays yours. The tool gathers the material and dates it.