®Planning appeal decision
Land to the east of Cormiston House, Preston Bowyer, Milverton, Taunton, TA4 1PQ
change of use of the land and erection of 1no. self-build residential dwelling and associated works
- Authority
- Somerset Council
- Appeal type
- minor · Planning Appeal
- Procedure
- Written Representations
- Development
- residential · Minor Dwellings
- Inspector
- Cooper-Young C
Main issues, as the Inspector framed them
- whether the site would provide a suitable location for the proposal, having particular regard to the spatial strategy of the Development Plan and the accessibility of the site to services and facilities
- the effect of the proposed development on the supply of employment sites
What decided it
The site's location outside any defined settlement boundary with poor accessibility to day-to-day services and facilities, requiring future occupiers to rely predominantly on private motor vehicles, constitutes significant and enduring harm that significantly and demonstrably outweighs the benefits of a single self-build dwelling, even in the context of a shortfall in housing land supply.
The benefits of providing new accommodation and a self-build dwelling, with moderate weight on the latter due to the Council's shortfall in self-build supply, were significantly and demonstrably outweighed by the significant and enduring harm arising from poor accessibility, reliance on private motor vehicles, and loss of potential employment land, when assessed against the Framework policies as a whole.
Framework references: 11
Plan policies cited: Policy SD1, Policy SP1, Policy SP4, Policy CP1, Policy CP6, Policy CP8, Policy CP2, Policy DM2, Policy A5, Policy SB1
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.