®Planning appeal decision
Cherry Tree Farm, Grove Road, Faversham, Kent, ME13 9RN
Planning appeal 3349633 at Cherry Tree Farm, Grove Road, Faversham, Kent, ME13 9RN (Swale Borough Council) was allowed on 20 March 2025 by Inspector Pattison B, by written representations. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: The effect of the proposal on employment provision and community facilities within the area.
Change of use of agricultural land and conversion of a former poultry shed to form a single residential dwelling, to include associated external alterations, landscape, parking and ecological enhancements
- Authority
- Swale Borough Council
- Appeal type
- minor · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Written Representations
- Development
- residential · Change of use
- Inspector
- Pattison B
- Postcode
- ME13 9RN
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- The effect of the proposal on employment provision and community facilities within the area
- The effect of the proposal on the character and appearance of the landscape character of the Perrywood Hills and Dry Valleys character area and the Kent Downs National Landscape (KDNL)
- Whether or not the site would be suitable for a residential development given its location outside a built-up area
- The effect of the proposal on the best and most versatile agricultural land
What decided it
The Council's inability to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing sites, combined with the building's demonstrated unsuitability for employment use and the proposal's compliance with the NPPF exception for reusing redundant buildings in the countryside, justified allowing the appeal.
The significant housing need arising from the Council's lack of five-year housing supply outweighed the loss of best and most versatile agricultural land and the isolated location, particularly given the reuse of an existing redundant building and the enhancement of its landscape setting.
What the Inspector cited
- Development plan policies
- Policy DM3Policy DM14Policy ST1Policy ST3Policy CP3Policy DM24Policy DM31
- National Planning Policy Framework
- Paragraph 11Paragraph 84Paragraph 189
- Judgments
- Braintree DC v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Greyread Ltd & Granville Developments Ltd [2018] EWCA Civ 610
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
Town Planner Pro holds this letter. The Appeals plan opens it and every other letter we hold, all of them searchable, with the main issues and what decided each case picked out. We do not show letters on the free site because they carry people’s names and addresses.
With an account
What an account adds to this decision
More decisions in Swale
The authority’s record since 2016 · every decision in 2025
- Allowed8 July 20263376221Land West Of Borden Lane, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 8HR
- Allowed10 December 20253365131Land At Sandbanks Lane And Seasalter Road, Graveney, Kent , ME13 9DU
- Dismissed23 October 20253365056Cowstead Farm, Queenborough Road, Halfway, Kent, ME12 3RL
- Dismissed2 October 202533609392 Parsonage Chase, Minster-on-Sea, Sheerness, Kent, ME12 3JL
- Dismissed29 July 20253357228Land at Honeysuckle Drive, Minster on Sea, Kent, ME12 3RE
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.