ARMSTRONG RIGG PLANNING
Site: Land west of Somerset Fields, Bentley
Client: Manor Oak Homes
This site which is at the edge of an attractive village in East Hampshire, neighbouring listed buildings and at the edge of the Bentley Conservation Area in a countryside location with key views crossing the site it was clearly in a highly constrained location. By way of response ARP advised on preparing a design-led rural exception scheme of 9no. affordable homes and 3no. market homes as permissible under the Council’s rural exceptions policy.
Despite positively responding to officer comments at pre-application and application stage and aligning the proposals with relevant Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan policies, the Council refused the application for 6no. reasons. These included: Unsustainable location with undue reliance on the private car; Harmful impact on the character and appearance of the area; Negative impacts on designated heritage assets; Impact on amenity of occupiers of neighbouring properties.
At appeal ARP prepared planning evidence supported by expert heritage evidence which satisfied the Inspector that the application proposals accorded with the development plan as a whole and the significant benefits of the scheme, notably the affordable homes, outweighed any limited harm, including limited harm to the designated heritage assets.
In allowing the appeal the Inspector agreed with our planning case that the site represented a sustainable location for development and would result in no unacceptable impacts on the amenity of neighbours.
The onus which was placed on preparing a suitably well-design and sympathetic scheme to both local planning policies and the local built environment was highlighted by the dismissal of an appeal for a modest housing scheme in the same village soon after our appeal decision had been received.
In East Hampshire’s emerging Local Plan the site has now been allocated for housing.
