®Planning appeal decision
Development site south of 1 & 2 Orwell Spike, West Malling, Kent, ME19 4PB
construction of 9 detached dwellings, together with associated access, landscaping and drainage works
- Authority
- Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council
- Appeal type
- minor · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Written Representations
- Development
- residential · Minor Dwellings
- Inspector
- MacLeod R
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- Whether the proposed development would make adequate provision for affordable housing, enhancement of public open space and contributions towards infrastructure requirements having regard to relevant planning policies and the proposal's viability
What decided it
The Council's poor housing supply position (2.2 years) combined with the Financial Viability Assessment demonstrating that the scheme would not be viable with full policy contributions meant that the benefits of housing delivery and land remediation outweighed the failure to meet all policy requirements.
The social benefit of providing 9 new homes in a sustainable location, the environmental benefit of remediating contaminated land, economic benefits from construction and increased expenditure, and the £45,000 contribution towards affordable housing outweighed the harm of not providing on-site affordable housing, no contributions towards public open space enhancement, and no contributions towards infrastructure improvements, when assessed against the Framework taken as a whole under the tilted balance.
Framework references: 11, 64, 63, 60, 58
Plan policies cited: Policy CP17, Policy CP25, Policy OS3
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.