The Secret Garden, Ripon, HG4 2QR

full application for a temporary essential workers dwelling and the siting of 3x camping pitches

Authority: Harrogate Borough Council *
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Hearing
Development: agricultural · Change of use
Inspector: Savage K

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

whether the rural enterprise provides justification for the proposed dwelling in this location having regard to the approach of local and national policy to residential development in the countryside
whether the dwelling would be suitably located to access local services and facilities
whether the proposal would represent a suitable location for tourism accommodation
the effect of the proposal on the landscape character of the area
whether the proposal would be acceptable in respect of flood risk

What decided it

The genuine functional need for a full-time worker to live on site to support the horticultural enterprise, satisfying the essential rural worker dwelling tests of Policy HS9.

The modest but tangible benefits of the horticultural business (economic, social, biodiversity) were found to cumulatively outweigh the flood risk in this case.

Plan policies cited: Policy HS9, Policy GS2, Policy GS3, Policy EC4, Policy EC7, Policy NE4, Policy CC1

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.