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Dismissed12 August 20243342573

Beulah Baptist Church, Clifford Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN40 1QA

Planning appeal 3342573 at Beulah Baptist Church, Clifford Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN40 1QA (Rother District Council) was dismissed on 12 August 2024 by Inspector Hunter A, following a hearing. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: the effect of the proposed development on the non-designated heritage asset (NDHA), known as The Sanctuary.

Demolition of existing Sanctuary and Buckhurst Room Hall and construction of a new church and community centre with associated external works, retention of Clifford Hall and alterations of the Beulah Centre elevation on Clifford Road

Authority
Rother District Council
Appeal type
minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure
Hearing
Development
community-institutional · Other minor developments
Inspector
Hunter A
Postcode
TN40 1QA

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

  • the effect of the proposed development on the non-designated heritage asset (NDHA), known as The Sanctuary
  • the effect of the proposed development on the character and appearance of the building and the area, with particular regard to its scale and design
  • the effect of the proposed development on protected species

What decided it

The combination of harmful scale and design to the character and appearance of the site, together with insufficient evidence to rule out harm to protected species (bats), outweighed the identified benefits and led to conflict with the development plan as a whole.

the moderate community benefits, limited economic and environmental benefits, and limited weight attached to a fallback demolition scenario did not outweigh the harm to character and appearance and the unresolved uncertainty over protected species, resulting in conflict with the development plan taken as a whole

What the Inspector cited

Development plan policies
RLP Policy BX1RLP Policy EN3RLP Policy EN5DSA Policy DEN4
National Planning Policy Framework
Paragraph 203Paragraph 209Paragraph 135Paragraph 139Paragraph 180Paragraph 186Paragraph 56

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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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.