Soon after the making of its neighbourhood plan in 2015, the Parish Council was facing the prospect of the planning authority intending to grant permission for a 42 home housing scheme that was in direct conflict with the plan policies. With our expert help, the made plan had allocated in excess of the housing target agreed with the planning authority and consolidated its allocation strategy by deploying a settlement boundary policy.

 

The Parish Council appointed us firstly to prepare its case to persuade the Secretary of State to ‘call in’ the planning application for determination before the permission could be issued. The case succeeded and we were then appointed as expert witnesses to represent it at the public inquiry having to defend its plan against both the planning authority and the developer.

 

The Secretary of State agreed with his Inspector that permission should be refused, citing the conflict with the made plan as critical in his reasoning. Soon afterwards, an application for a similar sized scheme close by (and also outside the settlement boundary) was withdrawn. By contrast, the plan’s allocated schemes have all been granted permission with two sites now built out.