Planning Portal Blog

Planning and design consultancy Barton Willmore has submitted an outline planning application to Northumberland County Council for a major residential-led development of 1,600 new homes near Newcastle on behalf of a consortium of developers.

Persimmon Homes and Bellway Homes want to build the sustainable urban extension on an 86-hectare site to the south-west of Cramlington New Town. The scheme, which will be known as Arcot Woods, also includes a local centre with shops, a pub, a school, a pub as well as a care home, sheltered housing for older people, a community centre and a health centre.

Also proposed is nearly 30 hectares of public open space. Some 10 per cent of the housing will be affordable.

The application represents the two first phases of the so-called ‘South West Sector Master plan’. The site was first allocated for housing development 1999 and this was carried forward to the Blyth Valley Core Strategy in 2007. In 2008 the council identified the sector as part of the ‘Growth Point Programme of Development’ for south-east Northumberland.

Arcot Woods is designed to be the final quadrant of Cramlington New Town, which was first established in the 1960s. The plans will help to complete the original vision of Cramlington and support its development as one of the most sustainable and accessible towns in Northumberland.

View further details of the scheme

Roger Milne

A High Court judge has quashed the first compulsory purchase order promoted by the Port of London Authority.

The CPO was for Orchard Wharf, an unused and vacant facility with some derelict buildings at Leamouth on the north side of the River Thames, near its confluence with the River Lea. The order had been confirmed by the Secretary of State for Transport.

Part of the wharf and an adjoining strip were owned by the Grafton Group who went to court to challenge the order.

The LPA had sought a CPO under the Port of London Act 1968. It planned to bring the site back into active use a wharf, handling river-borne aggregates and cement and for batching them into concrete.

Aggregate Industries UK and London Concrete proposed to lease the wharf and had submitted plans for a batching plant and ancillary development from east London planning authority Tower Hamlets Council. The latter had refused the proposals on design grounds.

An inquiry was subsequently held into the CPO and objections and into the planning appeal. The planning inspector recommended that planning permission be refused, but that the CPO should be confirmed.

The Grafton Group, which owns 1.38 hectares of the wharf and a small additional strip, hoped at some stage to develop the site for uses including residential, a boat yard and a waste-to-energy facility.

The group mounted a legal challenge to the order which has now been quashed after a High Court judge agreed the CPO was unfair.

Roger Milne

The Welsh Government has insisted that so-called Strategic Development Panels (SDPs) would only be introduced sparingly and only in areas where a cross-authority approach is necessitated such as the Cardiff and Swansea city regions.

The administration clarified its stance as the Government’s flagship planning legislation was debated in the Welsh Assembly.

Assembly Members remain concerned that proposals for SDPs and a national-level plan will weaken democratic local authority planning powers. There is also concern that the legislation does not do enough on Welsh language issues.

A spokesman for the administration insisted that planning minister Carl Sargeant “intends to introduce SDPs only where they add value, currently we envisage the need for two, or at most, three SDPs.

“Strategic development panels will be established to produce the SDPs with locally elected members making up two-thirds of the panel. The inclusion of social, economic and environmental partners on the panel will ensure that all relevant interests have the opportunity to contribute to the production of the SDP early on to deliver a more effective outcome.”

He indicated that the national level plan would only look at energy infrastructure.

The spokesman added: “The minister continues to work with all parties to ensure that any further amendments to the bill in relation to the Welsh language tabled at stage three reflect the concerns and comments of stakeholders and the environment and sustainable committee and are in the best interests in communities across Wales.”

In a separate but related development the Welsh Government has introduced into the Assembly the country’s first Wales-only legislation to protect ancient monuments and historic buildings.

The Historic Environment (Wales) Bill will make it more difficult for individuals to escape prosecution for criminal damage to scheduled ancient monuments by claiming ignorance of a monument’s status or location.

It will also give Welsh Ministers powers to take action if scheduled monument are threatened and allow local authorities to take action to halt the decay of historic buildings.

Meanwhile, Sargeant has welcomed the publication of an independent report into the effect houses in multiple occupation (HMOs) can have on communities.

The report reviewed existing legislation and considered best practice in both Welsh and other local authorities and made recommendations in respect of both local authority practice and potential changes to the regulatory framework.

Sargeant has promised to consider recommendations which included modifying change of use regulations.

View details of the Plenary meeting

View further details of the Planning (Wales) Bill

View further details of the Historic Environment (Wales) Bill

Roger Milne

The current owners of the former Manston Airport site close to Ramsgate in Kent have unveiled illustrative proposals for the 300-hectare site which involve a mix of residential and commercial space as well as extensive parkland.

The former RAF airfield has a 9,000-foot long runway and was the only facility in south-east England aside from Heathrow, Gatwick and Stansted airports with a runway capable of handling the largest long-haul aircraft

The site is owned by a joint venture company whose main shareholders are regeneration specialists Trevor Cartner and Chris Musgrave as well as Ann Gloag, co-founder of the Stagecoach Group.

The joint venture claims its designs are based on the redevelopment of European airports like Flugfield Boblingen in Stuttgart and Tempelhof Airport in Berlin. The company has talked about creating thousands of jobs and hundreds of new homes.

Last year consultancy Indigo Planning submitted a report to Thanet District Council suggesting that around 1,000 new homes could be located on previously developed land immediately north of Manston airport (beyond the B2050 road) that is within the airport’s ownership but was surplus to its then operational requirements.

Considerable controversy surrounded the sale of the airfield last year and whether or not it should have been retained as an operational airfield. There was also public disquiet over an aborted move by the district council to compulsory purchase the site.

Two months ago the Department for Transport appointed a consultant to examine the decision-making process surrounding the fate of Manston airfield.

A recent report from the Commons Transport Committee was highly critical of the role of Kent County Council which the all-party group said failed to deploy its legal and financial resources adequately to support the district council CPO assessment.

The MPs also said the top tier authority had failed to fulfill its “strategic oversight function” in a case involving” a strategic transport asset”.

View more details on the scheme’s website

Roger Milne

A 1920s London pub – demolished by the owners while it was being considered for listed building status – should be rebuilt, the planning authority involved has decided. The Carlton Tavern in Maida Vale in central London was unexpectedly bulldozed last month.

Now Westminster City Council planning chairman councilor Andrew Smith has called the demolition of the pub “an act of vandalism” and confirmed an enforcement order requiring its rebuilding.

Council officials had recommended that the pub should be rebuilt within 18 months “so as to recreate in facsimile the building as it stood immediately prior to its demolition on 8th April 2015.” The pub was the only building in the street – Carlton Vale – to survive World War II bombing.

Historic England said the tavern was built in 1920 in the so-called Vernacular Revival style by Frank J. Potter. It was commissioned by Charrington & Co brewery at a cost of £11,600 and replaced an earlier pub on the site dating from the 1860s which was destroyed by a German Zeppelin bomb on 19 May 1918.

An application to demolish the building and replace it with a pub and flats as part of a mixed-use scheme had been recommended for approval by officers earlier this year but the proposals were rejected by members on design grounds.

View the full planning committee report (PDF 3MB)

Roger Milne

Man admits Oxfordshire planning offices arson

A man has admitted starting a series of overnight fires in Oxfordshire, including one that caused major damage to council offices shared by the joint planning service operated by South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils.

Andrew Main, 47, pleaded guilty to four counts of arson at a hearing at Oxford Crown Court last week. Main, of Rokemarsh near Wallingford, pleaded not guilty to a fifth charge of arson with intent to endanger life.

No explanation over why he started the fires was given in court. It was revealed in court that Main has a mental health issues. He was remanded in custody while a decision is taken over whether to proceed with the fifth charge.

Demolition order for Bath block of flats

Mary Favager, a Bath resident and developer, is appealing an enforcement notice requiring her to demolish a block of luxury flats in Upper Oldfield Park, Bath which the planning authority, Bath and North East Somerset Council says is taller and wider than the scheme originally approved for the site.

Favager‘s company Landmark Developments had also unsuccessfully applied for retrospective permission for the project. That is also the subject of an appeal.

The developer has claimed the reason the scheme changed was because of a building control requirement for a steel frame. A two-storey Edwardian villa was demolished to make way for the five-storey block of 14 flats.

Reports on office market, housing supply and green infrastructure

The number of office jobs has outstripped the rise in office space, sparking a ‘race for space’ according to a report from planning consultancy Nathaniel Lichfield & Partners.

This assessment ‘Workplace Futures: the changing dynamics of office locations’ argued that the office market is currently in flux and undergoing fundamental changes in response to various market trends.

Real estate consultancy Savills has warned that England is heading for a planning shortfall of 180,000 homes over the next Parliament if current trends continue.

That’s the conclusion of a report titled: ‘Beyond the election: what next for planning?’ This argued that housing shortfalls risk becoming embedded in the planning system, storing up problems for the future.

Meanwhile, a new report by Arup supported by the Landscape Institute and Royal Botanical Gardens, Kew has made the case for a central role for green infrastructure in city planning.

This analysis: ‘Cities Alive – rethinking green infrastructure’ highlighted how the creation of a linked ‘city ecosystem’ that encompasses parks and open spaces; urban trees, streets, squares; woodland and waterways can help create healthier, safer and more prosperous cities.

Read the reports:

• Workplace Futures: the changing dynamics of office locations (PDF 4MB)
• Beyond the election: what next for planning? (PDF 1.25MB)
• Cities Alive – rethinking green infrastructure

Classical country house project in Norfolk meets NPPF criteria

ADAM Architecture has secured planning permission for a new classical-style country house on a Norfolk farm from King’s Lynn & West Norfolk Borough Council.

The nine-bedroom house is designed to be set in open countryside on a working farm to the south east of the town of Docking where there was no house previously.

The house is set over four floors including a basement. A curved orangery links the main house to a conservatory pavilion.

The scheme satisfied paragraph 55 of the National Planning Policy Framework, which allows for new country houses considered to be of ‘exceptional quality or innovative design’.

In this case, the client and design team worked with specialists to develop a strategy for the innovative use of hydrogen fuel cell technology for the provision of power to the house.

Legal round-up

• A long-awaited Supreme Court judgment on air quality issued last week has made it clear that the UK is in breach of the EU Ambient Air Quality Directive with implications for highways plans and airport expansion.
• A High Court judge has refused an application for the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea’s policy on basements to be suspended pending the determination of a substantive challenge to the policy.
• Green energy company Ecotricity has lost an Appeal Court bid to overturn a ruling that it cannot build a four-turbine wind farm at Huntspill on the Somerset Levels.
• A bid to appeal a High Court ruling that supported the grant of planning permission to environmental company Viridor for an energy from waste facility on land in south London earmarked for a country park has failed.
• The future of the proposed redevelopment of the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank is back in the balance as a legal challenge by a local resident heads for the Court of Appeal.
• A First-Tier Tribunal judge has dismissed a challenge by developer Banner Homes to the listing of a 4.83 hectare site by St Albans City and District Council as an asset of community value (ACV). The site falls within the metropolitan green belt and is owned by the developer and house builder.

Reading skyscraper plans blocked

Proposals for three skyscrapers on the site of a former car dealership in the centre of Reading near the town’s railway station have been refused.

The scheme, dubbed Swan Heights, was turned down by Reading Borough Council’s planning committee on the advice of officers. The tallest building would have been 28 storeys high.

Developers Lochailort’s plan – designed by RCHICTS Robert Adam – proposed 352 flats of varying sizes along with office, retail and leisure floor-space.

Officers objected to the scheme on the grounds of “excessive bulk, scale and massing”, lack of affordable housing, leaving insufficient space for future public transport provision, unsuitable landscaping and the lack of comprehensive sunlight analysis.

View the planning committee minutes

Dorset brewery makeover

Plans to further develop a Grade II-listed former Victorian brewery in Dorset have been approved by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council.

The proposals for the scheme at Brewers Quay involve a mix of 35 townhouses and flats as well as retail floor space, a restaurant and exhibition space. An earlier scheme which included an 85-bed hotel was withdrawn.

Date for opening of new Oxford-London rail link

The opening date for a new rail link between London and Oxford has been announced. The £130m line will run from Oxford Parkway, the first new station in the city for 80 years, to London Marylebone from 26 October.

Work on the station, located north of the city just off the A34, near Water Eaton park-and-ride, began last October. A new Bicester Village station will open at the same time. Formerly known as Bicester Town, the station is being completely rebuilt as part of the project.

Rob Brighouse, managing director of Chiltern Railways, said: “This project is the first new rail link between a major British city and London in over 100 years and will bring significant economic benefit to the region.”

Scunthorpe stadium plans approved

Scunthorpe United’s plans for a new 12,000-seater football stadium have been approved by North Lincolnshire Council which has given the go-ahead for the League One side to move just over a mile from its current home at Glanford Park to a new site at Burringham where it will form part of the ambitious Lincolnshire Lakes development.

The £18m project also includes proposals for a bar, gym, hotel and office-floor space as well as a multi-use arena and outdoor football pitches for training purposes. Traffic and flood-risk issues remain to be resolved, however.

View more details of the new stadium

View details of the Lincolnshire Lakes development

York waste project withdrawn

Yorwaste, the local authority-owned waste management company based in north Yorkshire and York, has confirmed it has withdrawn its plans for a materials recovery facility and waste transfer station at a green belt location near Rufforth on the outskirts of York.

The scheme had been approved by the city council subject to the view of the Communities Secretary who had signaled he was calling in the proposals.

A spokesman for  Yorwaste said: “Yorwaste has decided to withdraw its current planning application, which was approved by City of York Council, and we will not be proceeding with the public inquiry requested by the Secretary of State.

“We will now be taking time to consider future requirements for waste management and recycling infrastructure before deciding on our next steps.”

Northamptonshire solar farm submitted

Kettering Borough Council is considering proposals from Northfield UKSolar to turn a former World War Two airfield in Northamptonshire into a solar farm generating nearly 50 megawatts of electricity.

The company plans to install solar panels across part of the 112 hectare former RAF Desborough site near Wilbarston, Northamptonshire.

View full details of the planning application

Woking estate wrangle

An independent panel set up by Woking Borough Council is to take evidence next month from local residents and interested parties over the council’s controversial plans to regenerate the town’s Sheerwater Estate which could result in 600 homes being demolished.

More than 1,200 people have signed a petition opposing the proposed demolitions.

View the Woking Borough Council press release

Giant stumps proposal for Derby

Derbyshire County Cricket Club has submitted plans to erect a wickets sculpture on a busy roundabout in Derby The six-metre structure would be located on the Pentagon roundabout and greet motorists as they enter the city.

The sculpture would help support Derby’s bid to host matches in the Women’s World Cup in 2017.

Roger Milne

Green belt re-think urged

Architecture and urban design company Broadway Malyan has urged the next Government to “re-think the green belt and the protection it affords areas of land which could contribute a greater value to society through sustainable development and providing new homes”.

The company has published a report which concluded that “a re-calibrated green belt, coupled with strategic growth of towns and centres will have a significant impact on resolving the housing crisis.”

The report included an online survey by pollsters YouGov which found that two-thirds believed that the number of new homes built should be increased, with over two-fifths agreeing a significant increase was needed.

One in five respondents said that housing was one of the most important issues that will decide how they will vote in the general election.

However, just over two-thirds of respondents said that they were opposed to house building in green belt locations while 48 per cent opposed house building on greenfield sites. Only 27 per cent said that they supported house-building on green field locations. Some 83 per cent of respondents supported house building on brownfield land.

Read the full ’50 Shades of Green Belt’ report

Dover waterfront development agreed

The Port of Dover Authority has signed a deal with a real estate company to develop the town’s waterfront as it presses ahead with plans to build a new cargo terminal.

The Mermorandum of Understanding involves London-based developer Bride Hall. The new entity will be known as Dover Waterfront Limited and will look at proposals for new retail activity as well as hotels, bars and restaurants.

Dover District Council chief executive Nadeem Aziz said: “We will be working with the port’s new waterfront regeneration arm and Bride Hall to ensure all of our plans for the regeneration of Dover are coherent, joined up and offer the best opportunity to make a once-in-several-generations difference to our community and Dover as a thriving destination.”

Read the Port of Dover press release

Neighbourhood planning assistance

Planning Aid England has produced a suite of resources to assist those developing a neighbourhood plan.

The resources provide practical tips and advice on various stages of the neighbourhood plan process from designating the neighbourhood area to submitting the plan for examination. They are designed for community groups to use.

They include a series of” how to” guides, templates and videos. Topics include:

• project planning;
• resourcing your neighbourhood plan;
• engaging with landowners and developers;
• developing a vision and objectives; and
• writing planning policies.

Read the RTPI press release

Visit the ‘Forum for Neighbourhood Planning’ website (not currently working)

Outline permission agreed for 3,000-home scheme in London docklands

Newham Council in east London has agreed in principle to grant outline planning permission for the mixed-use regeneration of Silvertown Quays in the capital’s docklands.

The proposals involve 3,000 new homes, 179, 000 square metres of office space and 222,000 square metres of brand units, restaurants and a new school.

The scheme needs the approval of the Mayor of London and both the Communities Secretary and the Transport Secretary.

Norwich Passivhaus initiative

Norwich City Council is seeking housing association partners for a £300m programme to build hundreds of super energy-efficient homes.

The city council has gone out to tender on proposals which could mean the construction of 900 so-called Passivhaus homes – which are built to rigorous design standards to ensure they are highly energy efficient – over the lifetime of the four-year scheme.

Proposals for 287 Passivhaus homes are already in the pipeline in Norwich

View details of the tender

Brixton makeover

Muse Developments has submitted planning applications for a major Brixton town centre in south London redevelopment called ‘Your New Town Hall’.

The planning applications, for ‘The Triangle’ and ‘Olive Morris House’ sites facing onto Brixton Hill, are part of a project which will ultimately reduce Lambeth Council’s core office buildings from 14 to 2, saving taxpayers at least £4.5m a year.

The proposals include the refurbishment of the Grade II listed Lambeth Town Hall; a new 120,000 sq ft, energy efficient civic building; a total of 194 new homes and new landscaped public areas.
View further details on the scheme’s website

Hampshire development approved

East Hampshire District Council has approved the largest application it has ever considered which will see lead to the transformation of the garrison town Whitehill & Bordon with 2,400 new homes, jobs, essential infrastructure, facilities and a new town centre.

The town was one of the previous government’s “Eco-towns” and has recently been awarded ‘Housing Zone status’ by the Department for Communities and Local Government.

It has also been designated as one of five ‘step up towns’ by the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership in recognition of its regional importance.

View full details of the application

Elephant and Castle move

Notting Hill Housing has received planning permission from Southwark Council for the regeneration of the Aylesbury estate in the Elephant and Castle area of south London.

Southwark Council’s planning committee last night gave the green light to two separate applications – one for the first development site to the south-west of the estate, bordering Burgess Park, and one for the outline master plan for the remainder.

At the first site, 830 homes will be built, including specialist housing for older people and homes for people with learning disabilities, as well as a community facility and extensive new public open space including two new parks.

Phases two, three and four of the regeneration come under the outline master plan permission. This will see 2,745 homes built, as well as the creation of office space, retail units, a new public square with a health centre and early years care, and more public open space, such as pocket parks and playgrounds.

View details of the applications from the Southwark Council planning committee adgenda

Bath wrangle

A row over whether a block of flats in Bath should be demolished or altered will now be determined by the planning inspectorate. City councillors say the scheme as built bears little resemblance to the scheme they approved.

Last week they refused a retrospective application which has now been appealed by Landmark Developments Ltd.

Dorset solar farms planned by council

Plans to generate solar power on farm land owned by Dorset County Council could generate solar energy for nearly 10,000 homes, the authority has claimed.

Solar panels would be installed at 11 farms, owned by the council, covering a total area of about 67 hectares under plans approved by the council cabinet.

The locations of the specific shortlisted sites will be made public once full assessments have been carried out and planning applications have been prepared.

Wind farm deal

Glasgow-based renewable energy firm UrbanWind has announced plans to develop on-shore wind farm schemes across the UK after signing a £30m funding deal with a private equity firm.

Zouk Capital will provide finance for smaller schemes which have won planning permission but lack funding to proceed. Under the agreement, Zouk and UrbanWind will create a joint venture to develop suitable projects. UrbanWind says it has about 100 sites in the development appraisal phase.

Read the UrbanWind press release

Legal round-up

• A naturist spa located in Surrey Green Belt near Staines has lost its High Court challenge over an enforcement order requiring the demolition of new buildings which the judge ruled were “inappropriate”.
• Campaigners objecting to plans from Barratt Homes approved by Bradford City Council for 176 houses at Derry Hill in Menston, West Yorkshire have persuaded the Court of Appeal to reinstate all its proposed grounds for challenge. Bradford Council gave Barratt Homes planning permission in August 2014 for the scheme at Derry Hill in Menston, subject to certain conditions.
• A parish council has failed in a High Court bid to quash, in part, the aligned core strategies (ACS) of three councils in Greater Nottingham. Calverton Parish Council had made the application under s. 113 of the Planning and Compulsory Purchase Act 2004 over the ACS, adopted by Broxtowe Borough, Gedling Borough and Nottingham City councils in September 2014. The parish is within Gedling’s area and has been described as an enclave within Green Belt. It feared that the village would increase in size by a third.
• A Crown Court has ordered a third party to contribute to the costs of a successful prosecution by a local planning authority under the Town and Country Planning Act 1990, linked to a Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 application. According to Francis Taylor Building, the Court in Ipswich found that the non-defendant layperson had exhibited “serious misconduct” at various stages during the proceedings.. The third party was ordered to pay a contribution of £14,000. “The order is considered to be the very first obtained within England and Wales, specifically in a planning enforcement context,” FTB said.
• The developer behind Winchester’s controversial Silver Hill scheme has been refused leave to appeal a High Court decision which quashed proposed changes to the £165 million development. Now TIAA Henderson Real Estate, which sparked a storm of protest last year when it dropped affordable housing and a bus station from the project, plans to take the case to an oral hearing.

Council serves enforcement notice  over ‘red tape’ stripes

A woman in west London’s Kensington has been told to remove the red and white stripes she had painted on her house in protest over a rejected planning application.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea have served an enforcement notice on the owner ordering the stripes’ removal after neighbours complained.

The stripes appeared earlier this month after plans to demolish the house and replace it with a new house and two-storey basement were refused.

Roger Milne

A Norfolk district council has established a new form of property joint venture that could see the development of more than 140 sites across the local authority area.

The joint venture – Breckland Bridge Limited – involves Breckland District Council and developer Land Group and is initially expected to revitalise Thetford town centre, bringing a new cinema, hotel, restaurant and retail units and improved public realm on the Riverside site.

It will also involve the development of new residential sites in Attleborough and Mileham. It is understood the JV could be used to develop a further 142 sites once those first three are delivered.

Law firm Trowers & Hamlins advised Breckland on the initiative. Helen Randall, the partner at Trowers who led on the deal, said: “This project is particularly innovative because the joint venture has been uniquely structured as an evolved and more sophisticated variant from the standard local authority asset backed vehicle (LABV) to give the council more flexibility, greater certainty of delivery and the ability to apply a funding model which provides better value for money than traditional LABVs”.

Council Leader Michael Wassell said: “This innovative approach means that our key regeneration projects will bring new jobs, improved leisure facilities and much needed new homes for Breckland residents.”

Roger Milne

A millionaire property developer has admitted in court that he should not have modernised Llanwenarth House, a Grade II listed property in the picturesque Usk Valley in Monmouth shire.

The Georgian-style manor house was built in the late 16th century and is where Irish composer Cecil Alexander is thought to have written the lyrics to the famous hymn ‘All, things bright and beautiful’.

Newport Crown Court heard how Kim Davies, 60,  made extensive changes after buying the house in 2007, wrecking its Regency features and replacing them with modern and mock-Tudor ones. One bedroom had been converted into a bathroom fitted with a mosaic-carved jacuzzi.

At an earlier hearing in Abergavenny Magistrates Court, which could not be reported until now for legal reasons, Carl Harrison, for Brecon Beacons National Park Authority said Davies had destroyed the character of the building – one of the top nine per cent of listed buildings in Wales.

Davies had previously denied any wrongdoing but has now pleaded guilty to five charges under the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990.

The court heard that the renovation work carried out between June 2006 and August 2012 were deliberate breaches of planning law.

Penalties for unlawfully altering a Grade 11 Listed building include a maximum 12-month prison sentence or an unlimited fine. Davies is due to be sentenced on 15 May.

Roger Milne