Out-Law News 1 min. read
02 Jul 2013, 3:52 pm
The Inspector said in his decision letter (16-page / 185KB PDF) that, although the development site was outside settlement boundary defined in the Council's Local Plan, the Council's lack of a five year housing supply meant that the Local Plan was considered out of date under the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
The Council had argued that its housing shortfall from previous years should be recovered using the so-called "Liverpool method" under which a shortfall would be spread across the remainder of the Council's emerging Core Strategy period and would help the Council demonstrate a five year housing supply.
However, the Inspector said that by having regard to other appeal decisions and to Ministerial guidance, he considered the "Sedgefield method", under which a shortfall is recovered by adding it to the next five years of housing provision, to be the "most effective way" of meeting the NPPF objective of boosting housing supply.
The Inspector said that countryside policies in the Council's emerging Core Strategy carried "little weight" and noted that the Council had received legal advice pointing out that its Local Plan was out of date and that it would need to grant planning permission for land defined in the plan as countryside to meet its need for housing land.
The Inspector said that the loss of countryside caused by the development would cause "little significant harm". He noted that the site's boundary would alight with existing development and that there would be "no significant expansion of the town into open countryside".
The Inspector also said that the development would have a harmful impact on local infrastructure. However, he said that the developer had submitted a draft section 106 agreement which contained obligations on the developer to make sufficient contributions to overcome this harm.
The Inspector concluded that the benefits of the development, including a "significant boost" to housing supply and "substantial" tree planting in the National Forest, were not outweighed by any adverse impacts. In the light of the Council's lack of housing supply and the NPPF's presumption in favour of sustainable development, permission should therefore be granted, he said.
