Interesting Recent Rural Planning Appeal Decisions
A number of interesting planning appeals concerning rural cases have been delivered in the last few weeks.
Firstly, an appeal was dismissed for a new agricultural dwelling on a mixed farm in Warwickshire. Despite previously obtaining consent for a 3 year temporary dwelling on the site the inspector decided that a full time presence on the unit was only required for up to four months of the year and as such it was not essential that someone be on the site full time. In reaching his decision the inspector referred to the superseded information of PPS7 ‘as a useful guide’.
This case demonstrates the importance of detail in such applications where, not only the business test will be analysed, but also the essential need test for being on the holding.
In a second case, the new Class Q of the GPDO 2015 was tested by the proposed conversion of former poultry building in Somerset. The inspector concluded that raising the internal and part of the external floor levels was not allowed under the scope of permitted works and dismissed the appeal. Anyone considering a conversion under the GPDO should carefully consider the scope of works that will be required to the structure of the building to see if these are set out in Class Q. If they don’t, all is not lost. A full application for change of use may still be supported by the planners.
In the final case concerning an agriculturally tied dwelling in Wales, the inspector refused to allow the removal of the restriction as insufficient marketing and research had been carried out to assess demand in the local area. However, the condition was modified from agricultural worker to rural enterprise worker or to provide affordable housing. In broadening the scope of the restriction it will likely be much more difficult to achieve unrestricted use of the dwelling as the market for occupiers will be far greater with the new condition in place.
In all of these cases the outcomes do not seem unfair or unpredictable. However, they do illustrate that a lack of appreciation of the key issues concerning an application and the failure to address these correctly does not lead to a successful outcome. Had vital issues been properly approached then these appeals may have gone the other way, or maybe not even made it to the inspector at all. Fail to prepare, prepare to fail.
Please get in touch if you have an interesting planning situation and would like some straightforward advice. Failing to qualify for permitted development rights under Class Q is not the end of the story as many local authorities will still support conversions under full planning applications.
Related posts
As at the start of February 2016, many farmers will not have received their 2015 BPS payments. The RPA is under increasing pressure to make these payments and we
Across the Northwest/West Mids/North Wales region we have seen a general slowing in the value of residential development land over the last 12 months as more sites come to
After more than a decade of steady growth, the latter part of 2015 saw a slight reduction in the price of UK farmland in some of the most valuable
We are used to constant political upheaval in the renewable energy sector, but the last six months have been particularly difficult. Many are still looking at once viable projects
Late in December the Department for Energy and Climate Change published their conclusions to the Feed-in Tariff scheme review. The full text can be found here. Whilst not all
On Saturday world leaders agreed a broad process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in order to limit global temperature rises to not more than 2 degrees centigrade up to
