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Dismissed2 August 20233313232

Land Adjacent to Sonning Golf Club, Pound Lane, Sonning, RG4 6GJ

Planning appeal 3313232 at Land Adjacent to Sonning Golf Club, Pound Lane, Sonning, RG4 6GJ (Wokingham Borough Council) was dismissed on 2 August 2023 by Inspector King T, following a hearing. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: Having regard to the proposed building's size and design, its effect on the character and appearance of the immediate area, and also with regard to wider landscape character and the proposed loss of trees.

Development of a specialist dementia residential care home (Use Class C2), creation of new pedestrian, cycle and vehicular access, landscaping, and other associated infrastructure works

Authority
Wokingham Borough Council
Appeal type
major · Planning Appeal
Procedure
Hearing
Development
community-institutional · Major retail and services
Inspector
King T
Postcode
RG4 6DJ

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

  • Having regard to the proposed building's size and design, its effect on the character and appearance of the immediate area, and also with regard to wider landscape character and the proposed loss of trees
  • Whether the proposal would materially conflict with national and local climate change objectives

What decided it

The combination of the building's harmful scale and massing on the character and appearance of the area and the unresolved uncertainty over the carbon emissions and impacts of the basement excavation outweighed the benefits of the scheme.

the identified local need for specialist dementia care and the quality of facilities proposed did not override the harm to character and appearance and the unresolved climate change/carbon emissions concerns, so the scheme was found contrary to the development plan as a whole

What the Inspector cited

Development plan policies
CP1CP3CC01CC04
National Planning Policy Framework
Paragraph 130Paragraph 154Paragraph 11

How the Inspector dealt with each one is set out in the app, in order: the development plan, national policy, housing land supply, other considerations and the planning balance, beside the letter.

See how each was applied

The decision letter

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More decisions in Wokingham Borough Council

The authority’s record since 2016 · every decision in 2023

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The main issues, what decided it, the planning balance and the policies and judgments listed as cited are read from the published letter by Town Planner Pro and are our summary, not the Inspector’s words; the letter itself is the record. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. Research, not advice.

In the app this decision sits on the map beside every appeal around it, with its letter to read and the main issues, policies and judgments cited picked out.