Challenge to development in AONB

Buckinghamshire Council consented to quash a solar farm consent on grounds (i) the officer significantly misled committee members on the heritage planning balance and (2) misled members by failing to advise to give great weight to harm to the setting of the Aylesbury Vale AONB.

In November 2022 Buckinghamshire Council granted permission for a 49.9MW solar farm for a period of 40 years at Callies Solar Farm, in the rural village of Ford in the Aylesbury AONB. The application followed an earlier refusal in 2021 by the Council for permission for a solar farm on the same land for reasons of harmful urbanising effects to the AONB and harm to public rights of way, and cumulative development with other solar farms in the area.

Although the second application determined in November 2022 notionally reduced the footprint of the solar panels, the Council Landscape Officer again objected to the harm to the AONB. The claimant argued that officers applied a skewed and inconsistent weighting to harms vs benefits and in breach of the NPPF requirement to give enhanced weight to harm to the AONB as priority landscape.

Further in the November 2022 decision, officers failed to advise members of the correct test under the s66 and NPPF duties in relation to harm to the setting of designated heritage assets by inter alia failing to give the heritage harm any weight in the overall planning balance.