Land South of Roxton Road, Great Barford, Bedford, Bedfordshire, MK44 3LR

Permission in Principle for the Residential Development of land for five Self and Custom Build Dwellings at land to the south of Roxton Road, Great Barford

Authority: Bedford Borough Council
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: residential · Minor Dwellings
Inspector: Hobbs J

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

whether the site is suitable for residential development, having regard to its location, the proposed land use and the amount of development

What decided it

The Council's inability to demonstrate a five-year supply of deliverable housing land (3.46 years) and the spatial strategy's failure to meet demand for self-build and custom housebuilding triggered the presumption in favour of sustainable development, whose benefits outweighed the conflict with the development plan.

The conflict with the spatial strategy and development plan policies, given significant weight, was outweighed by the significant benefits of providing 5 self-build dwellings to meet an unmet statutory duty and contributing to the Council's housing supply shortfall, applying the presumption in favour of sustainable development.

Framework references: 11, 14, 49, 232

Plan policies cited: LP Policy 3S, LP Policy 4S, LP Policy 7S, LP Policy 28S, LP Policy 29, LP Policy 30, LP Policy 59S, NP Policy H1, NP Policy D1, Policy AD1 of the Allocations and Designations Local Plan, July 2013

Read the decision letter on the Inspectorate’s site

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.

What an account adds

Draw a red line around your site and the appraisal follows.

Heritage. Listed buildings by grade and distance, conservation areas, scheduled monuments, registered parks and gardens, heritage at risk.
Landscape and environment. Green belt, national parks and national landscapes, SSSIs, ancient woodland, SPA, SAC and Ramsar sites, nutrient catchments.
Flooding. Flood zones 2 and 3, surface water, and both again with climate change.
Transport. The 800 metre station catchment and service frequency, bus stops with their weekday frequency, the cycle network, and the Framework’s transport tests measured for the site.

Then the development plan position, the housing land supply as an Inspector last accepted it, and every appeal decided around the site with its letter.

Every English appeal since 2016, with the letter behind it wherever the Inspectorate published one. Searched by meaning as well as by words, with the key case law counted live across the letters.

Casework that chases the deadlines. Applications, appeals and conditions with their statutory dates.

The judgement stays yours. The tool gathers the material and dates it.