Gary Grant has successfully opposed an appeal for 68 houses at the Cheltenham Public Inquiry.
A site at Oakhurst Rise in Cheltenham was proposed in the emerging Local Plan for housing development. The site was locally controversial and the capacity of the site had been given some initial consideration within the examination of the emerging Cheltenham Plan. This resulted in the Inspector accepting an amended “Wheatcroft” scheme with the agreement of the main parties. The Inspector did not accept the case made by the Appellants that the layout for 68 dwellings successfully addressed the key constraints of the site in alleging negligble effect on the setting of listed buildings and no effect on protected veteran trees. The Inspector did not consider himself bound by the provisional assessment of the Local Plan Inspector and in any event found that the harm to the setting of the listed buildings was very significant. Moreover, and in addition, the Inspector was not satisfied that the risk in respect of the veteran trees had been removed. Other elements of harm were also identified including by experts appointed by Rule 6 Third Parties.
Accordingly, notwithstanding the absence of a 5-year supply and the original officer recommendation for approval, the planning balance was found to favour the dismissal of the appeal.
A copy of the appeal decision is available to view here.
Gary was instructed by Cheltenham Borough Council and called two externally appointed experts and the LPA Conservation Officer.