Land South of Abberd Lane, And East of Spitfire Road, Calne, Wiltshire, SN11 8GF

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

• Appeal A: The effect of the proposal on the character and appearance of the area.
• Appeal B (1): The relationship of the proposal with the established settlement pattern and the spatial strategy for Calne.
• Appeal B (2): Would future residents have acceptable living conditions, having regard to potential sources of noise from adjoining land uses and, in the event of necessary mitigation measures, whether these could be designed and secured in an acceptable manner.
• Appeal B (3): The adequacy or otherwise of mitigation measures to address the impacts of the development (section 106).
• Appeal B (4): Whether the adverse effects of granting planning permission would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of the proposal.

What decided it

The Council's inability to demonstrate a five-year housing land supply rendered the most important policies out-of-date, engaging the NPPF paragraph 11(d)(ii) tilted balance, which the substantial benefits of the housing scheme were not significantly and demonstrably outweighed by; the local centre's acceptability then followed from, and was conditioned upon, that grant of permission for the housing scheme.

For Appeal B, very substantial weight to housing benefits, significant weight to economic benefits, limited weight to s106 infrastructure investment and moderate weight to environmental benefits were not significantly and demonstrably outweighed by the limited negative weight given to conflict with the development plan and landscape harm, so the tilted balance favoured permission; for Appeal A, significant social and economic benefits, combined with the success of Appeal B, outweighed the conflict with the spatial strategy and related policies.