®Planning appeal decision
Woodlands Park Landfill Site, Land South of Slough Road, Iver, Buckinghamshire, UB8 2FX
the redevelopment of the former landfill site to comprise a Data Centre development (B8 (Data Centre)) of up to 72,000 sqm (GEA) delivered across 2 buildings. The scheme includes site wide landscaping. The Data Centre buildings include ancillary offices, internal plant and equipment and emergency back- up generators and associated fuel storage. The development will also include cycle and car parking, internal circulation routes, soft and hard landscaping, security perimeter fence, lighting, earthworks, sustainable drainage systems, ancillary infrastructure and a substation. Summary of Recommendation: The appeal be allowed
- Authority
- Buckinghamshire Council - South Bucks Area *
- Appeal type
- major · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- employment-industrial · Other Major Developments
- Inspector
- Baird G
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- whether the proposal would be inappropriate development in the Green Belt having regard to the Framework and any relevant development plan policy
- the effect on the openness and purposes of the Green Belt
- the landscape and visual impact of the development
- whether the harm by reason of inappropriateness, and any other harm, would be clearly outweighed by other considerations so as to amount to the very special circumstances required to justify the proposal
What decided it
The Secretary of State's finding that the site constitutes grey belt land meant the development was not inappropriate development in the Green Belt, removing the need for Very Special Circumstances and allowing the substantial economic and need-related benefits to be weighed in a flat balance against the identified landscape harm.
The substantial weight given to employment, and significant weight to need, lack of alternative sites and economic benefits (with moderate weight to education/outreach, climate change mitigation and biodiversity net gain) outweighed the significant adverse landscape and visual harm, with no weight attributed to Green Belt harm as the development was not inappropriate.
Framework references: 49, 153, 155, 110, 115, 86a, 57, 58, 85
Plan policies cited: Policy GB1, Policy GB4, Policy EP3, Policy CP10, Policy CP9, Policy CP8, Policy CP13
Judgments cited: Monkhill Ltd v SoS for Housing, Communities & Local Government [2019] EWHC 1993; R (Sefton Borough Council) v Secretary of State [2021] PTSR 1662; R (on the application of Basildon District Council) v First Secretary of State [2004] EWHC 2759; Vistry Homes Ltd v Secretary of State [2024] EWHC 2088 (Admin)
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.