Land On Either Side Of Vigo Lane And Wrens Road, Sittingbourne, Kent, ME9 8LA

construction of a solar farm together with a control building, switch room, substations and compound, point of connection equipment, storeroom, access track, security measures, associated infrastructure and works, landscaping and biodiversity enhancements

Authority: Swale Borough Council
Appeal type: major · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Inquiry
Development: utilities-energy · Other Major Developments
Inspector: Baird G

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

The landscape and visual impact of the proposal
The effect on the supply of agricultural land

What decided it

The substantial weight attached to the public benefits of clean energy generation and climate change mitigation, together with significant biodiversity net gain, clearly outweighed the identified landscape, visual and heritage harms.

The substantial/significant weight attached to public benefits (clean energy generation, climate change mitigation, biodiversity net gain, economic benefits) clearly outweighed the less than substantial heritage harm and the temporary, localised landscape and visual harms, tipping decisively in favour of allowing the appeal.

Framework references: 189, 187, 198, 215, 212, 161, 168

Plan policies cited: Policy ST 1, Policy DM14, Policy DM 24, Policy DM 20, Policy DM31, Policy DM 28, Policy DM 14 (8)

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.