®Planning appeal decision
The Avenue, Welwyn, AL6 0PW
outline planning application for up to 24 dwellings with all matters reserved except for means of access
- Authority
- Welwyn Hatfield Council
- Appeal type
- minor · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- residential · Minor Dwellings
- Inspector
- Nunn M
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- whether the development represents inappropriate development within the Green Belt
- the effect of the proposal on the Green Belt, including openness
- the effect on the character and appearance of the area, including the landscape
- whether there is safe and suitable access to the development for all users
- whether the site is locationally sustainable
- whether drainage and flood risk are satisfactorily addressed
- whether the harm by reason of inappropriateness, and any other harm, is clearly outweighed by other considerations, so as to amount to the very special circumstances required to justify development within the Green Belt
What decided it
The absence of very special circumstances to outweigh the substantial Green Belt harm (inappropriateness, loss of openness and conflict with safeguarding the countryside from encroachment).
The benefits of market and affordable housing, economic and social benefits, and reasonable accessibility did not clearly outweigh the definitional Green Belt harm, the loss of openness, the conflict with safeguarding the countryside from encroachment, the harm to character and appearance, and the unresolved flood risk harm, so very special circumstances were not demonstrated.
Framework references: 11, 57, 60, 76, 115, 143, 152, 153, 154, 173
Plan policies cited: Policy SP1, Policy SADM1, Policy SP4, Policy SP7, Policy SP9, Policy SP13, Policy SADM14, Policy SADM16, Policy SADM34, Policy SADM2, Policy SP3, Policy SADM7, Policy SADM11
Judgments cited: R (Liverpool Open and Green Spaces Community Interest Company) v Liverpool City Council [2020] EWCA Civ 81; Hook v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government [2020] EWCA 486; R (Samuel Smith Old Brewery (Tadcaster)) v North Yorkshire County Council [2020] UKSC 3
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.