London Road, Basildon, SS16 4SQ

erection of a freestanding drive-thru restaurant, landscaping and associated works, including Customer Order Displays (COD) and alterations to existing car parking area

Authority: Basildon District Council
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: retail · Minor retail and services
Inspector: Smith J

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

whether the site would be an acceptable location for the proposed use, having regard to the provisions of the Framework in relation to promoting healthy lives and communities, with particular reference to the distance from Vange Primary School
whether the proposal would be inappropriate development in the Green Belt having regard to the Framework and relevant development plan policies
whether the financial contributions in the UU are necessary to make the development acceptable in planning terms, directly related to the development and fairly and reasonably related in scale and kind to the development

What decided it

The revised NPPF paragraph 154g test (December 2024) allowing redevelopment of previously developed land that does not cause substantial harm to Green Belt openness, rather than requiring no greater impact than existing development, enabled the proposal to benefit from an exception to inappropriate development.

Framework references: 96, 97, 154, 155

Plan policies cited: Policy BAS GB1

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.