We’re delighted to have succeeded in appeals within North Northamptonshire and Central Bedfordshire.
The North Northamptonshire case centred around two conditions attached to a permission to regularise longstanding Class E units within a former factory in the heart of a village. The application had clearly set out the proposed uses, but the LPA imposed conditions preventing any future changes within Class E, and to restrict the hours, neither of which had formed part of the application.
We were able to convince the Inspector to revise both conditions by:
- Removing the wording that prevented changes within Class E; and
- Introducing a more proportionate hours condition relating to noisy activities only
The decision provides sufficient flexibility for the owner, whilst ensuring that residential amenity is protected.
The Central Bedfordshire case was for a new dwelling behind a listed former public house. An extant permission for a smaller dwelling exists, so the appeal centred on heritage and amenity considerations. The LPA’s heritage concerns fixated heavily on comparisons with the extant permission rather than objectively assessing the proposals, and the amenity concerns were flawed and inconsistent in context of other permissions on and adjacent to the site. We highlighted these issues as part of our case, and the Inspector agreed that both the heritage and amenity impacts were acceptable in planning terms.
This is the third appeal in a year where we have successfully overcome strongly worded heritage objections, and in this case we did so without specialist heritage input. A heritage objection does not always prevent a positive outcome!
We are very pleased to have secured sensible outcomes to these cases and would be happy to discuss your current or upcoming projects.
