Land at Part Ordinance Survey Plot 0005, (Known As Apple Pie Farm), Cranbrook Road, Benenden, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4EU

Planning appeal 3356322 at Land at Part Ordinance Survey Plot 0005, (Known As Apple Pie Farm), Cranbrook Road, Benenden, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 4EU (Tunbridge Wells Borough Council) was dismissed on 24 October 2025 by Inspector Harbottle M, by written representations. The main issue, as the Inspector framed it: Whether the building and hard standing conserve and enhance the character of the rural landscape within the High Weald National Landscape.

Without planning permission, the laying of a concrete hard standing and the erection of a timber framed building on the land

Authority: Tunbridge Wells Borough Council
Appeal type: enforcement · Enforcement Notice
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: agricultural · Householder developments
Inspector: Harbottle M
Postcode: TN17 4EU

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the building and hard standing conserve and enhance the character of the rural landscape within the High Weald National Landscape
Whether an exception to the general restraint of development within the countryside is justified

What decided it

The building and hard standing fail to conserve and enhance the character of the High Weald National Landscape and no rural business need has been demonstrated to justify an exception to countryside development restraint.

What the Inspector cited

Development plan policies: LBD1EN1EN25Core Policy 4Core Policy 14BD1LE1
National Planning Policy Framework: Paragraph 189Paragraph 88Paragraph 15

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 applied

The 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.

Appeals plan, £15 a month

With an account

What an account adds to this decision

7 other decided appeals within two kilometres of this site. In the app every dot opens its decision, and its letter wherever one was published, and you can draw your own site to see what has been decided around it.AllowedDismissedSplitThis decision

An appeal decision in the app, with the main issues, policies and judgments cited picked out beside the letter — Every letter, there to read. We pick out the main issues, the policies and the judgments cited, so you can work through the letter faster.

Searching the full text of appeal decision letters in the app — Search inside every letter. By words or by meaning, filtered by authority, outcome, appeal type and procedure, with every locatable decision on the map and the Inspector named on each.

Start your free trial

More decisions in Tunbridge Wells

The authority’s record since 2016 · every decision in 2025

Notice varied and upheld28 October 20253346556
Land to the Rear of The Knoxbridge Public House, Cranbrook Road, Frittenden, Cranbrook, Kent, TN17 2BT
Notice varied and upheld24 October 20253366815
Land Between Kilndown Poultry Farm and Evanden Farm, Church Road, Kilndown, TN5 7PX
Notice varied and upheld23 January 20253339249
Pitch 1, The Ranch, Redwings Road, Pembury, TN2 4AD
Notice varied and upheld15 March 20243294221
Land at Free Heath Buildings, Free Heath, Wadhurst, Kent, TN5 6RB
Split Decision11 March 20243322303
Isaacs Farm, Franks Hollow Road, Tunbridge Wells, Kent, TN3 0UB

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.