Fifteen years on and seven unsuccessful planning appeals later, the long journey to obtaining permission to build a five-bedroom farmhouse on a five-hectare greenfield site designated a 'Special Landscape Area' on the edge of Chapmanslade, near Westbury, Wiltshire, has finally ended for one jubilant alpaca farmer.
With the expert help of Salmon Planning Company, a three-year strategy to secure a farmhouse on the greenfield site was hatched; this involved securing permissions for new farm buildings, temporary farm workers' accommodation, and ultimately, obtaining permission to build a five-bedroom farm dwelling on the five-hectare site designated a 'Special Landscape Area'.
We are delighted to announce that in September 2024, the Planning Inspectorate granted permission for a five-bedroom dwelling. This decision was made against a backdrop of seven previous appeals having failed on landscape impact grounds.
Needless to say, this ruling has not been popular with Wiltshire Council, the Local Planning Authority, who have subsequently filed a letter of complaint to The Planning Inspectorate.
However, in such cases, under Section 288 of The Planning Act 1990, a decision made by The Secretary of State can only be challenged in the High Court if there has been an error in Law and there is a strict six-week timescale allowed for mounting such a challenge. So, the Local Planning Authority’s ‘complaint’ is unlikely to affect the state of play; the Planning Inspectorate has no ability to amend or alter a decision because of a complaint. Only the High Court has the power to do this.
It is also unlikely any other aggrieved interested party, such as the local Parish Council, would mount a legal challenge that would successfully lead to a quashing of the Inspector’s decision to grant the permission for the farmhouse. A challenge cannot be made on the merit of the case so the High Court has no jurisdiction to rule on whether or not the Planning Inspector was right to conclude the farmhouse had no harmful impact on a protected landscape.
An interesting and informative case study indeed...and another very happy Salmon Planning client.
Salmon Planning Company's team of expert chartered planning consultants and architects are ideally placed to advise you on any challenging planning issues you may be facing.
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