Planning Inquiry into 500-House Development, Wychavon
Land East of Bredon Road & Tewkesbury Road, Mitton
We were instructed by Bredon Parish Council to oppose joined planning appeals for 500 dwellings and a primary school on the basis of conflict with local policy, landscape harm and traffic impacts. We successfully secured dismissal of the appeals after a 5-day public inquiry, primarily on transport grounds.
After the Parish Council successfully convinced planning committee members to refuse the linked applications made by Barratt Homes and a consortium of landowners, the developer lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate. Wychavon District Council’s Planning Committee had refused the applications on three grounds, including conflict with the local policies setting out the District and Parish’s spatial strategy, the effect on the tranquility of the nearby Cotswolds Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and risks to biodiversity. However, the Council informed the parties in advance of the Inquiry that it would no longer pursue the latter two grounds. The Parish Council was forced to act as the main objector to the scheme in relation to traffic, landscape and impacts on the AONB.
The Inspector did not consider that the location was unsuitable for such a development and was of the view that the developments could achieve a good quality and sensitive design through careful consideration at the reserved matters stage. However, despite the highways authorities raising no objections, the Inspector was not satisfied that the submitted transport assessment was sufficiently robust to assure him that the developments would not result in severe residual cumulative impact on the road network or harm the tranquility of the AONB. As the evidence was insufficient to satisfy the Inspector on these points, he dismissed the appeal, as the Appellant could not meet the test in paragraph 111 of the NPPF.
Piers Riley-Smith was instructed as counsel for the Parish Council, and called Bruce Bamber of Railton TPC in relation to transport matters and Peter Radmall of Peter Radmall Associates in relation to landscape matters.
- Appeal Decision
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Commentary
The appeal decision is notable as a clear application of the principle in the Satnam Millenium Ltd. case that a decisionmaker may refuse an application because of a lack of robust information to show that severe cumulative effects on the highway network will not arise. It also shows how transport matters can justify nearly ‘automatic’ refusal if such impacts are a real risk, as the test in paragraph 111 of the NPPF does not involve balancing such impacts against other benefits.
Here, despite the local highways authorities and National Highways having no objections, the Inspector found that they had not grappled with the concerns raised by the Parish Council’s expert, Mr Bamber. Mr Bamber was able to show that there were a number of ways in which the assumptions underlying the transport assessment were optimistic, and also that the modelling of the strategic road network showed congestion that would likely lead to rat-running, including through the AONB. These issues had not been robustly considered by the highways authorities, but meant that the Inspector considered he could not “reach a fully informed conclusion about the severity of impacts on the local highway network” and so dismissed the appeals.