The Secretary of State, Eric Pickles, decided not to grant planning permission for the erection of 102 houses on York green belt. This news was welcomed by our client, Strensall Parish Council, who our Planning Consultants worked on this case for.
Pickles agreed with a planning inspector’s advice and rejected the developers application for the site off Brecks Lane in Strensall.
The developer was refused planning permission by City of York Council in October 2013 and a planning inspector later supported this decision.
A major issue throughout has been deciding whether or not the site sits within the York green belt.
The inspector found that the York green belt boundary had not been defined in any adopted plan. But she concluded that the site was “within the general extent of the green belt” and served “a number of green belt purposes”.
A decision letter said that Pickles agreed that the site “should be considered as within the outer edge of the green belt”.
This meant that the application should only be approved in very special circumstances, the letter said.
The Communities Secretary ruled that very special circumstances did not exist to outweigh the harm the development would cause, and hence refused it planning permission.
This case helps demonstrate our planning teams extensive experience of the local planning process whether here in York or elsewhere, in particular with arguments regarding the green belt.