Land at Usworth House Farm, Peareth Hall Road, Springwell, GATESHEAD, NE9 7NT

the installation of a renewable energy generating solar farm comprising ground-mounted photovoltaic solar arrays together with substation, tower connection, transformer stations, switch room, site accesses, internal access tracks, security measures, access gates, other ancillary infrastructure and landscaping and biodiversity enhancements

Authority: Sunderland City Council
Appeal type: major · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: utilities-energy · Other Major Developments
Inspector: Bore J

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

The contribution the scheme would make towards the generation of renewable energy
The effect of the proposal on the Green Belt and the landscape
The loss of productive agricultural land

What decided it

The scheme would constitute inappropriate development in the Green Belt causing significant harm to the openness and integrity of a particularly vulnerable part of the Green Belt that plays an important role in separating settlements, and this harm significantly outweighed the renewable energy benefits.

Plan policies cited: Strategic priority 9 of the Sunderland Core Strategy Development Plan, Policy NE9 of the Sunderland Core Strategy, Policy NE11 of the Sunderland Core Strategy, Policy WWE1 of the Sunderland Core Strategy, Policy NE12 of the Sunderland Core Strategy, Policy NE6 of the Sunderland Core Strategy Development Plan

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.