Communities secretary refuses 200 homes, allows 110 in neighbourhood planning areas

A planning expert has said that the weighting that will be given to neighbourhood plan policies in appeals decided by the communities secretary remains hard to predict.

Against the recommendation of planning inspector Neil Pope, Clark refused an appeal (64-page / 1.0 MB PDF) from developer Allaston Developments against Forest of Dean District Council’s decision to refuse permission for a large development on fields outside the development boundary of the town of Lydney.

Clark found that the lack of a demonstrable five year supply of housing in the area rendered housing policies in the adopted core strategy and the emerging Lydney Neighbourhood Development Plan out-of-date. The communities secretary, therefore, gave only limited weight to policies restricting development outside the settlement boundary and on open space and setting standards for homes for elderly people.

However, Clark gave moderate weight to conflict with local environmental policies, which he said were broadly in line with the National Planning Policy Framework. The communities secretary also gave moderate weight to the adverse impact the proposals would have on the character and appearance of the area and limited weight to its likely traffic impacts. Overall Clark decided that the combined adverse impacts of the proposal outweighed its “substantive” benefits, which included social, economic and environmental benefits and the provision of new homes.

In a contrasting decision (52-page / 440 KB PDF) last week, Clark decided to approve plans to build up to 110 homes on fields just outside the East Sussex village of Ringmer. A decision letter on behalf of the communities secretary said he gave significant weight to both the emerging South Downs National Park Authority Joint Core Strategy, which was “at an advanced stage”, and the draft Ringmer Neighbourhood Plan, which passed referendum in November.

The appeal site was allocated for a smaller development in the draft neighbourhood plan and Clark was satisfied that allowing a development 24-homes larger than that allocated, earlier than anticipated in the document, would not amount to a predetermination of the neighbourhood planning process.

The communities secretary did not consider the proposals to be significantly at odds with the character of the area, agreeing with planning inspector Richard Schofield that the proposed extension of the village “would not appear as a significantly detrimental incursion into the open countryside”. Clark found that the scheme would represent “a sustainable form of development that would make a significant contribution to the provision of both market and affordable housing in the area”.

Planning expert Emma Cottam of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com, said: "The communities secretary's decision in the Allaston Developments appeal is a useful reminder that where there is a lack of a demonstrable five year housing land supply, relevant development plan policies for housing may well be determined to be out-of-date."

"However, developers, and indeed local authorities, who are looking for trends in decision making may well be frustrated by the level of weighting afforded to the emerging neighbourhood plan," said Cottam. "Casting our minds back nine months to the Earls Barton appeal decision, former communities secretary Eric Pickles attributed significant weight to the conflict with policies in an emerging neighbourhood plan that had not yet been examined; in this case, Clark attributed only 'moderate weight to the plan as a whole', notwithstanding that the independent examiner’s report had been published and recommended that the plan should proceed to referendum."

"Whilst the weight assigned in the Earls Barton appeal was in respect of conflict with particular policies, in light of the Lydney and Ringmer appeals, the level of weight to be afforded to emerging neighbourhood plans as a whole is proving to be difficult to predict, and as more appeals papers land on the communities secretary’s desk, it will be interesting to see how the approach is developed in the coming months," Cottam said.