Planning appeal decision
Little Bearsden St. Marys Lane, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN39 5JE
Planning appeal 3342645 at Little Bearsden St. Marys Lane, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN39 5JE (Rother District Council) was dismissed on 18 March 2025 by Inspector Francis L, by written representations. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: whether the conditions are necessary and reasonable with regard to the effect of the appeal proposal on the supply of visitor accommodation in the area.
the extension of an annexe and use of the extended building as one unit of holiday accommodation without complying with conditions attached to planning permission Ref APP/U1430/A/10/2127139, dated 5 October 2010
- Authority
- Rother District Council
- Appeal type
- minor · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Written Representations
- Development
- leisure-sport · Minor retail and services
- Inspector
- Francis L
- Postcode
- TN39 5JE
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- whether the conditions are necessary and reasonable with regard to the effect of the appeal proposal on the supply of visitor accommodation in the area
- whether the proposal would be a suitable location for housing having regard to its accessibility to services and facilities
What decided it
The significant harm to the supply of visitor accommodation in the area, arising from the lack of substantive evidence that the holiday let was not financially viable or lacked demand, outweighed the limited housing benefits when assessed against the Framework as a whole, even in the context of the Council's housing land supply shortfall.
The significant weight attributed to the conflict with development plan policies protecting tourism and visitor accommodation supply significantly and demonstrably outweighed the limited benefits of an additional dwelling in terms of housing stock contribution, such that the presumption in favour of sustainable development did not apply.
What the Inspector cited
- Development plan policies
- Policy EC6 of the Rother Local Plan Core Strategy 2014Policies DCO1 and DEC3 of the Development and Site Allocations Local Plan 2019Policies OSS3 and SRM1 of the Core StrategyPolicies OSS2 and RA3 of the Core StrategyPolicy DIM2 of the DASA
- National Planning Policy Framework
- Paragraph 11Paragraph 232
- Judgments
- Freddie Reid v Secretary of State for Levelling Up Housing and Communities & Newark and Sherwood DC [2022] EWHC 3116 (Admin)
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 appliedThe 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.
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