®Planning appeal decision
Land north of Jubilee Drive and Highgrove Crescent, Polegate, BN26 6FG
residential development (use class C3) comprising up to 180 dwellings; informal and formal open space, footpaths, cycleways and internal roads; associated parking, landscaping, planting, noise attenuation measures, utilities, drainage infrastructure and groundworks. All matters are reserved with the exception of vehicular access into the site, to be taken from Highgrove Crescent
- Authority
- Wealden District Council
- Appeal type
- major · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Written Representations
- Development
- residential · Major dwellings
- Inspector
- Miles H
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- whether the site would be a suitable location for housing including with regard to its accessibility by sustainable methods of transport
- the quality of living conditions for future occupiers with particular regard to noise and disturbance
What decided it
The Council's inability to demonstrate a 5-year housing land supply, combined with the substantial housing and social benefits of the scheme, outweighed the conflict with restrictive development boundary policies.
The adverse impacts of conflicting with development boundary policies GD2 and DC17 were afforded only limited weight due to the housing land supply shortfall; the considerable benefits of 180 new homes, affordable housing provision, self-build plots, public open space creation, and improved bus services significantly and demonstrably outweighed these limited adverse impacts, applying the tilted balance under NPPF paragraph 11(d).
Framework references: 11
Plan policies cited: Policy GD2, Policy DC17, Policy TR3, Policy SPO7, Policy EN8, Policy SP01, Policy EN27, Policy AFH1, Policy WCS14, Policy EN1
Judgments cited: Bernard Wheatcroft Ltd v SSE & Harborough DC [1982] P&CR 233
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.