After a hard fought public inquiry, sitting for the second time after a grant of temporary planning permission on appeal by the Secretary of State was quashed, Michael Rudd secured permanent planning permission for a five pitch traveller site in the Central Bedfordshire Green Belt. The appeal involved matters of Green Belt harm, landscape harm, sterilization of a mineral resource of national importance, five year housing land supply, traveller need and personal circumstances. The council published a Gypsy and Traveller Accommodation Assessment part way through the Inquiry and the authors relied upon the amended definition in Planning Policy for Traveller Sites to reduce the number of permanent pitches required. This is one of the first appeal decisions where a GTAA addressing the new definition has been considered.
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