Successful Objection to Ten New Houses in the High Weald AONB

This objection was made on behalf of a Community Group to an application for ten new houses in garden and agricultural land.

The site was given a very firm no in 2017, where it was described as unsuitable for development because of the impact on the AONB.

The applicant argued the lack of a five-year housing land supply is the reason to allow this recent application. We contended that the landscape value of the site located partly in a conservation area and affecting its setting, within the AONB and outside the development boundary means the proposal is unacceptable and the ‘tilted balance’ in favour of housing land supply was not achieved.

Our team was able to demonstrate that the application for the houses manifestly fails to conserve and enhance the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. The site was poorly designed with a restricted access road requiring significant, obtrusive work to be undertaken to make the visibility splays a visual detriment of the Conservation Area, with a consequent loss of on street parking.

The proposal did not meet planning policy criteria, therefore, neither should the tilted balance apply because of the impact on the AONB. We found that back land development had been rejected for other sites in the area and this site is no exception.

The council has refused this application.