Out-Law News 2 min. read
05 Apr 2016, 5:27 pm
Clark granted outline planning permission last week for a mixed-use scheme including homes, shops, community facilities, health care facilities and public open space on land to the north of the village of Brockworth.
The 77 hectare development site lies within the Gloucestershire green belt, as defined in saved policies of the 2006 Tewkesbury Borough Local Plan. National planning policy only allows green belt boundaries to be altered in "exceptional circumstances" and development within the existing green belt to be approved in "very special circumstances".
A decision letter on behalf of the communities secretary (88-page / 670 KB PDF) said Clark considered "very special circumstances" to exist in this case. The communities secretary noted government policy that "unmet need is unlikely to clearly outweigh harm to the green belt and any other harm so as to establish very special circumstances". Whilst "considerable weight" was given to the contribution of the proposal to the supply of homes in an area with a persistent undersupply of homes, Clark also found that the scheme would have "considerable economic benefits", would improve local sports facilities and medical facilities and was consistent with strategic planning aims in the area.
An area according with the proposed development site is allocated for a 1,500-home development in the emerging joint core strategy (JCS) for Gloucester, Cheltenham and Tewkesbury. According to the letter, Clark considered it "significant that the application site has the support of all three planning authorities involved with the [emerging] JCS". The planning inspector examining the JCS said in her preliminary findings that exceptional circumstances exist for the release of the site from the green belt.
The communities secretary gave substantial weight to the harm the proposals would cause to the green belt, considerable weight to harm to the setting of heritage assets and moderate weight to the proposed loss of agricultural land. However, Clark was satisfied that the identified benefits of the scheme, including its consistency with strategic planning objectives, "clearly outweigh the harm to the green belt and all the other harm identified".
Planning expert Jennifer Holgate of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "Of key importance in relation to this decision is that the Perrybrook development had unanimous local planning authority support, and that the site had been allocated in the emerging local development plan, which was submitted for examination in November 2014. Furthermore, the JCS inspector was also supportive of the site being removed from the green belt."
"The approach taken in the emerging joint core strategy was given 'considerable weight' by the communities secretary. As such, the decision conforms with the general trend of previous decisions and case law of late, such as a case involving Houghton Regis in Central Bedfordshire, which provides that whilst unmet housing need will not by itself constitute very special circumstances, factors such as economic benefits and conformity with planning policy are capable of getting a developer over the finishing line," she said.
“This decision provides support for the tactic of making early applications in advance of a site being formally removed from the green belt as part of the local plan process - an allocation in an unadopted plan will hold weight, which of course increases as the draft plan progresses towards adoption,” said Holgate. “Effecting development through plan making, rather than simply decision taking, is par for the course.”
