Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has dismissed an appeal by Gladman Developments over a 94—home scheme proposed for a field in community use in open countryside on the edge of Faringdon in Oxfordshire refused by the Vale of the White Horse District Council.
Planning Portal writes:
The inspector who held the appeal, recovered because of its impact on the emerging Faringdon Neighbourhood Plan, had recommended the appeal should be allowed.
The appeal site was in open countryside across a prominent hillside which Pickles acknowledged was ‘a valued landscape’ and as such ought to be protected according to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The Communities Secretary also gave ‘moderate weight’ to the harm the development would cause to the amenity value of the field, which he was satisfied was ‘a valued open community space’ and the subject of a separate application to the county council as a town green.
Unlike the inspector, Pickles gave ‘little weight’ to policies in the emerging neighbourhood plan that identified the site as ‘local green space’ and would restrict development outside the current town boundary because he noted the final detail of the plan was unresolved as an independent examiner had published a report after the appeal inquiry ended recommending those policies were deleted from the neighbourhood plan which was not yet the subject of a referendum.
Pickles agreed with the inspector that the lack of a demonstrable five-year supply of housing land in the district added ‘significant weight’ in favour of allowing the appeal and that the provision of 40 per cent affordable housing was ‘a significant benefit’.
However he dismissed the appeal after concluding that ‘the adverse impacts in regard to landscape and amenities, together, would significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits when assessed against the policies in the NPPF taken as a whole’.
