Coombe Dairy, Exe View Road, Lympstone, Exmouth, Devon, EX8 5AZ

Unrestricted use as a dwellinghouse

Authority: East Devon District Council
Appeal type: minor · Planning Appeal
Procedure: Written Representations
Development: residential · Minor Dwellings
Inspector: Kent R

Main issues, as the Inspector framed them

Whether the site is in a suitable location having regard to the development plan policies concerning housing in the countryside
The effect of the development on the East Pebblebed Heaths Special Area of Conservation (SAC) and the Exe Estuary Special Protection Area (SPA)

What decided it

The significant shortfall in the Council's housing land supply (2.97 years) and the Framework's support for re-use of isolated buildings and boosting housing supply outweighed the conflict with development plan policies on location and sustainable transport.

The limited adverse impact of reliance on private car travel and conflict with development plan policies on sustainable location was outweighed by the moderate benefit of adding a dwelling to address the significant housing shortfall and the moderate benefit of landscape enhancement, applying the presumption in favour of sustainable development under Framework paragraph 11(d).

Framework references: 11, 232

Plan policies cited: Strategy 7, Strategy 5B, Strategy 3, Policy D8, Policy TC2, Strategy 47, Policy TC2

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.