Appeal won for 9 new homes in Hampshire

Fowlers have won an appeal securing permission in principle for between four and nine houses on a field in the countryside outside a Hampshire village. The Inspector was satisfied that this was a suitable location for the development.

The Inspector noted Planning Policy Guidance (PPG) stating the scope of Permission in Principle applications. These are limited to location, land use and the amount of development.

Normally, new houses in the countryside would conflict with development plan strategic housing policies. However, the council are currently unable to supply enough housing, and so these policies were considered out of date.

This meant the Inspector could assess the plans using National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) policies. In this case, the Inspector concluded that the benefits of up to nine houses outweighs any negative impact of the development.

The Inspector considered a number of factors, including:

• the site is surrounded on three sides by existing houses. Therefore, the new houses would not be isolated homes in the countryside, and would infill the edge of the village;
• the character and appearance of the area would not be harmed by the development; and
• the Inspector acknowledged that in this location occupiers would be reliant on private car travel, but went on to give this limited weight. In a rural are with dispersed settlements like this one, the NPPF recognises that sustainable transport solutions will vary between urban and rural areas. There was a recently dismissed appeal in the area with similar transport concerns. In this case, the reliance on private cars weighed heavily in decided to refuse the permission. The Inspector rejected the same approach in our case, due to significant differences between the two plans.

Although an appeal is never usually part of a project’s goals, we are delighted to achieve a positive result for our client.