®Planning appeal decision
94 Fountain Street, ACCRINGTON, Lancashire, BB5 0QP
change of use of existing dwellinghouse (Use Class C3) to children's care home (Use Class C2) for 1 child and 2 carers on a rota
- Authority
- Hyndburn Borough Council
- Appeal type
- minor · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Written Representations
- Development
- community-institutional · Change of use
- Inspector
- Savage K
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- whether the proposal would meet an identified need for children's residential care facilities in the area
- the effect of the change of use on the housing mix and character of the area
- the effect of the proposal on traffic generation and parking demand locally
What decided it
The absence of any adopted development plan policy requiring demonstration of need for children's homes, combined with clear national policy support for such accommodation and no persuasive evidence of harmful concentration or unacceptable highway impacts, meant the appeal should be allowed.
The benefits of providing accommodation for a vulnerable child in accordance with national policy outweighed the Council's concerns about concentration and parking, which were not supported by persuasive evidence.
Framework references: 11
Plan policies cited: Policy 1 of the Children's Residential & Supported Accommodations SPG, Policy 2 of the Children's Residential & Supported Accommodations SPG, Policy Env7 of the Hyndburn Core Strategy, Policy DM32 of the Development Management DPD
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.