Permission granted for 550-home Yorkshire development, after quashed decision is reconsidered

Pickles had disagreed with planning inspector John Braithwaite's recommendation to grant permission for the development on fields near the developed edge of the parish of Ingleby Barwick.

A High Court judge quashed Pickles' decision in July. The judge found that Pickles had failed properly to consider whether the proposed development was in conflict with the local development plan as a whole. He had focused instead on deemed conflict with a single policy that aimed to maintain the green wedge between Ingleby Barwick and neighbouring Thornaby.

Pickles was also found to have misapplied the policy in question. Having consulted a key diagram in the local plan, the former communities secretary had found that "there is no development plan support for a conclusion that the appeal land is within a designated green wedge". The judge said there had, therefore, been no basis for applying the green wedge policy to the appeal site.

Having been quashed by the High Court, the appeal fell to be redetermined by Pickles' successor as communities secretary, Greg Clark. A decision letter (48-page / 405 KB PDF) issued last week on behalf of Clark granted permission for the proposed development.

Unlike Pickles, Clark concluded that the proposal accorded with the development plan overall. He gave little weight to the fact that the site was located outside the development boundary proposed in the emerging development plan document for Stockton-on-Tees and found that the development would cause "minimal harm to the character of the area". Clark said the provision of market and affordable housing in an area without a demonstrable five-year supply of land for housing carried "significant weight in favour of the proposed scheme".

Overall, the communities secretary considered that the adverse impacts of the appeal proposal would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits. He agreed with inspector John Braithwaite's recommendation and granted outline planning permission for the scheme.

Planning expert Jennifer Holgate of Pinsent Masons, the law firm behind Out-Law.com said: "Following the quashing of the original Pickles decision, it was made abundantly clear that the single barrier, the green wedge policy, could no longer apply. The message for Clark was ensuring a balanced approach and full consideration of the development plan was needed in this instance. Taking into account the recent Hopkins Homes decision from the Court of Appeal, there is little weight that can be given to that development plan in its current infancy”.