Secretary of State refuses permission for 700 new homes and a school on appeal

Secretary of State Eric Pickles has refused planning permission for a new school and nearly 700 new homes in a series of applications. Pickles backed the original refusal for permission by East Hertfordshire District Council (EHDC).

The applications proposed by Bishop’s Stortford High School and The Herts & Essex High School, in association with Hertfordshire County Council, included plans to relocate and expand two high schools to a site at Whittington Way in the town.

It was proposed that the original school sites would be developed by Countryside Properties to fund the relocation and development of the schools. A further site owned by the County Council was also planned to be released for housing and a total of 690 new homes were planned.

EHDC refused permission following the submission of the applications in September 2010, following concerns raised over the loss of green belt land and the loss of sites for community facilities. Concerns were also raised over the impact of the proposed scheme on traffic and the size of the relocated schools.

The Secretary of State recovered the appeals for his own determination because the proposals included "significant development in the Green Belt," the Secretary of State said in his decision letter (215-pages/ 1.41MB PDF).

The Secretary of State did however allow 'appeal B' by the Governors of the Bishop's Stortford High School, which was against a decision by the Council to refuse planning permission for the change of use to school sports fields with associated changing facilities without complying with a condition attached to planning permission.

"The Secretary of State sees no reason to disagree with the Inspector’s view that the Appeal A proposal as a whole would be inappropriate development in the Green Belt, and also conflicts with Policy," he said in his decision letter. "In forming this view he has had regard to the Inspector’s statement that the fencing and floodlighting around the Multi Use Games Area and the All Weather Pitch would add to the reduction in openness."

He also said that the new school would "conflict with the green belt purpose of assisting in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment" and would have a "significant adverse impact on the visual amenities of the green belt."

The relocation of the Herts & Essex High School to another proposed housing site at Beldams Lane, which is currently school sports pitches, is still open for consideration, according to the decision letter.