®Planning appeal decision
Land at Eccles, East and West of Bull Lane, Eccles, Kent, ME20 7EH
Residential development of up to 950 dwellings (to be delivered in a phased and severable manner), provision of a mixed-use local centre (including Class E, F and C3 with potential for retirement homes) provision of land to accommodate a new primary school, replacement sports pitches with changing facilities; associated green infrastructure including landscaping, public open space, allotments, sustainable urban drainage systems, biodiversity enhancements; new accesses from Bull Lane; new access and road/cycleway/footpath link to New Court Road
- Authority
- Tonbridge and Malling Borough Council
- Appeal type
- major · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- residential · Major dwellings
- Inspector
- Board D
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- The effect of the scheme on highway safety, having particular regard to reliability and operation efficiency of the Strategic Road Network.
What decided it
Resolution of highway safety concerns through agreed mitigation, combined with the tilted balance arising from the Council's inability to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply, meant the significant benefits of the scheme outweighed the limited harms identified.
The significant benefits of the scheme (up to 950 homes including 30% affordable housing, public open space, sports provision, biodiversity net gain, economic benefits) outweighed the less-than-substantial heritage harm, localised landscape harm and conflict with Policies CP14 and SQ1, tipping the balance in favour of granting permission.
Framework references: 11, 174, 126, 129
Plan policies cited: Policy CP14, Policy CP16, Policy CP2, Policy CP7, Policy CP10, Policy CP17, Policy CP23, Policy CP24, Policy CP25, Policy SQ8, Policy SQ1, Policy NE1, Policy NE2, Policy NE3, Policy NE4, Policy OS1, Policy OS2, Policy OS3, Policy CC3
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.