®Planning appeal decision
Land North and East of Junction 17 of the A12, Chelmsford, Essex, CM2 7TN
commercial development of up to 120,000 sqm of logistics/warehousing development (Use Class B8 with ancillary offices) along with servicing and infrastructure including new site accesses, internal roads and footpaths, landscaping including earthworks to create development platforms and bunds, drainage features and other associated works (all matters of detail reserved)
- Authority
- Chelmsford Borough Council
- Appeal type
- major · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Inquiry
- Development
- employment-industrial · Major general industry/storage/warehousing
- Inspector
- Nunn M
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- planning policy and the spatial strategy
- the effect on the character and appearance of the area, including the landscape, and protected trees
- the effect on designated and non-designated heritage assets
- the effect on highway capacity and safety; and the availability of sustainable transport options
- the need for the development
- the overall planning balance
What decided it
Unresolved highway safety and capacity concerns, particularly regarding the proposed change to the Junction 17 southbound exit slip road, weighed very substantially against the scheme and could not be safely resolved at outline stage.
The significant economic, environmental and sustainable transport benefits of the scheme did not clearly outweigh the substantial harms to landscape and protected trees, less-than-substantial heritage harm, and unresolved highway safety/capacity concerns, such that the adverse impacts significantly and demonstrably outweighed the benefits under the tilted balance, and the proposal also conflicted with the development plan as a whole.
Framework references: 11, 58, 85, 86, 87, 116, 187, 212, 215, 216
Plan policies cited: Policy S1, Policy S4, Policy S6, Policy S7, Policy S8, Policy S11, Policy DM8, Policy DM17
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.