Batchworth Heath Farm, Batchworth Heath, Rickmansworth, WD3 1QB

Part Retrospective: Change of use of land as an amendment to the residential curtilage, associated landscaping changes including formal garden areas, hard standing for vehicular access and parking and installation of entrance gate and pillars without complying with a condition attached to planning permission Ref 23/1221/RSP, dated 17 November 2023

Authority: Three Rivers District Council
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: residential · Change of use
Inspector: Lo S

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether or not Condition 6 is necessary and reasonable in the interests of protecting the openness of the Green Belt

What decided it

The condition is necessary and reasonable because removal would create a realistic prospect of additional built development that would incrementally erode the openness of the Green Belt, given the site's history of cumulative increases in built form and its location within the Green Belt.

Plan policies cited: Policy CP1, Policy CP11, Policy CP12, Policy DM1, Policy DM2, Appendix 2

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.