Has anyone successfully stopped a planning application before?
Morning
At our last Parish Council meeting a bloke presented a housing scheme. It's to go on land owned by a brewery. 12 houses. The land is basically an old field between the pub and the side of my house. There is a very unusual listed building at one end of the field; thought to be a very very old village bowling alley, but it just looks like a small old long barn.
One half of the field is currently used informerly as somewhere for kids to play while their parents are in the pub. It is also used once a year for a steam engine rally; miniature ones. Lasts about three days.
The field is a haven for wildlife. Birds galore. There is a lovely thick hedgerow down both sides. A couple of huge Apple trees on it too.
It would be so sad to see it get built on. A planning application is yet to be submitted so I want to start building a case against it in advance. Has anyone ever done this with any success? If so, any tips?
From what I've read, there is a presumption in favour of new development in the UK so I fear it's going to be a struggle.
The village has already seen so much new housing development in the last few years. Feels like it's turning into a small town. Amenities are really stretched as it is. Three weeks to see the doctor, drains flooding from not being able to cope with the capacity, lots more traffic etc etc.
Posts
I believe that anyone can apply for a parcel of land to be designated as a 'village green'. You just need to be able to prove that it is used by the local population. I think I would try to investigate this.
Tootles - most planning departments have an online database of all their planning applications and decisions. Might be worth doing some research on previous overturned applications to get a feel for which buttons are most effective to push - this will vary from planner to planner - it is absolutely not a uniform process.
I know this as I live on a county border - and everyone comments on the visible difference between the development that goes on this side of the boundary, compared to adjacent properties on the other side. It also makes a an interesting comparison in bin collections, pothole repairs and the like.....but thats another story
You could try to get the local Wildlife Trust to take a look and see if there is any protected species using the land. They wont automatically err on the side of the land but if it is of interest they might do you a report. Just type your county and Wildlife Trust into any search engine and you should see it. Note they might charge you for this some do and some dont.
Morning Tootles,
You could argue for the wildlife, however wildlife will only become a consideration in the planning process if species protected under the Wildlife and Countryside Act to a certain level are involved.
Even then it is rather hit and miss between different planning departments. Even if species covered at the highest levels such as bats and great crested newts which have their habitat as well as themselves protected are involved, it will usually not stop a development. It might make a development less profitable and less attractive. What usually happens is the planning department will ask for wildlife surveys to be undertaken. If protected species are present the developer will have to provide a 'mitigation' plan in support of the application for planning permission. The mitigation may involve moving the animals to new habitats or providing for them within the new scheme.
Many developers (especially smaller ones) try to cut corners though with wildlife and I have seen many fall flat on their faces with a switched-on planning department. So it can be one way to prevent a development.
If you can get local wildlife groups involved, ask them to do some voluntary surveys to find out just what is there and ask if they can scrutinize the developer's surveys and mitigation proposals. Many developers will have 'friendly' wildlife consultants who are incredibly good at not finding animals on sites their clients want to develop for example.
You can only get around this if you have your own survey data to refute any survey results presented by the developer.
In all though your best bet is to get local people to object. As far as I know a Parish Council can itself object to the proposal and prevent it. So if enough people in the parish are against it, you have a good chance of the proposal going no further.
PS sorry if I went over some of the points already covered by other posters, it took me ages to type that out and I did not see the other replies
Useful info and forms here http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/professional/protection/process/online-application-form/
If the building really is an old Skittles Alley you can try to get it Listed http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/1574013/Skittles-pubs-going-down-like-ninepins.html
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.
I'd suggest you read the council's own planning policies to see if anything proposed breaches any of these. They can't really go against their own policy documents. Worth a try?? Good luck.
Welshonion, she says it's " at one end of the field" they could still try to build around it. We ( our neighbours) stopped a development nearby, but it was done by quoting lots of very tedious planning statements and policy documents.
How about getting together with the neighbours and deciding who's going to do each part?? one to check out planning history, another to check out the wildlife aspect etc?
Whoops! Missed that
That could be good news then - there are restrictions on things that can be done/built in the area affecting a Listed Building.
Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.