6 Beesonend Cottages, Beesonend Lane, Harpenden, Hertfordshire, AL5 2AA

single and two-storey rear and single-storey side extensions along with internal alterations and removal of rear chimney (following refusal of planning application ref 5/2025/1380)

Authority: St Albans City Council
Appeal type: householder · Householder (HAS)
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: residential · Householder developments
Inspector: Fern L

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the proposals would be inappropriate development in the Green Belt, having regard to the National Planning Policy Framework and any relevant development plan policies, and the effect of the proposed developments on the openness of the Green Belt
Whether any harm by reason of inappropriateness would be clearly outweighed by other considerations to amount to the very special circumstances required to justify the proposals

What decided it

The proposals would constitute inappropriate development in the Green Belt causing substantial harm to its openness through disproportionate additions to the original building, which was not outweighed by other considerations including heritage preservation.

Framework references: 153, 154

Plan policies cited: Policy 1, Policy 13

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.