Land West of Cards Road, Sandon, Essex, CM2 7AE

erection of a flexible electricity generation facility with associated ancillary infrastructure, access and boundary treatment

Authority: Chelmsford Borough Council
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: utilities-energy · Minor offices/R&D/light industry
Inspector: Chalk M

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

The effect on the character and appearance of the area
The effect on non-designated heritage assets

What decided it

The established need for the development and the absence of a sequentially preferable alternative site outweighed the significant visual harm and moderate heritage harm.

The significant harm to character and appearance and moderate to low harm to the significance of the pillboxes were outweighed by the established need for the development, the sequential preference of the site, and the mitigation provided by landscaping.

Plan policies cited: Policy DM8, Policy DM14

Judgments cited: Wheatcroft

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.

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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.
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