Devon hotel redevelopment objection

Richard Buxton Solicitors were instructed by Lee and Lincombe Residents’ Association to object to a planning application concerning demolition of the former Lee Bay Hotel and construction of 21 homes, a café and a toilet block in its place at Lee, Ilfracombe.

The proposed development site was located within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), Coastal Preservation Area, Heritage Coast and the Lee Conservation Area. The site was also within the setting of a Grade II listed building. The application was for a substantial housing development that would have increased the size of Lee village, a rural settlement on the North Devon coast, by approximately 37%.

There was strong local opposition to the proposed development, and we submitted a letter on behalf of the local Residents Association to the Members of North Devon Council’s Planning Committee highlighting concerns with the application, including heritage impacts, lack of affordable housing, and the absence of exceptional circumstances to justify major development within the AONB.

The application was unanimously refused by North Devon Council’s Planning Committee, on the basis that: 1) the scheme would fail to preserve or enhance the Lee Conservation Area, as well as the setting of the adjacent Grade II listed Old Mill; 2) the applicant had not demonstrated that exceptional circumstances existed or that the development was in the public interest so as to justify major development within the AONB; and 3) the proposed development was not considered to be of a modest scale or proportionate to Lee’s size, form or character, and did not meet an established housing need.