Appeal Success for New Housing in Pawlett, Somerset

AAH Planning and AAH Landscape have been successful in assisting their client to secure outline planning permission (granted on Appeal) (PINS Ref: APP/V3310/W/22/3303992) for up to 41 dwellings and a convenience store on an unallocated site just outside the settlement boundary of the village of Pawlett in Somerset. The scheme will deliver 40% affordable housing for the community to meet demonstrated local housing need and a convenience store for the benefit of the village.

The main issues in this appeal were:

1. whether the development would be suitably located having regard to the Council’s spatial strategy; and

2. whether the proposed access arrangements would give rise to unacceptable highway safety concerns.

The Council and Planning Inspector concurred with the findings of the LVA prepared by AAH Landscape, finding the landscape and visual impacts of the scheme to be acceptable. Following the closure of the only shop in the village, he also noted that the inclusion of the retail facility within the proposals is a positive feature of the scheme.

In relation to the first main issue, The Sedgemoor Local Plan (SLP) seeks to apportion housing development in accordance with a settlement hierarchy, and broad expectation of growth comprising the principle towns and a number of other settlements that are sub-divided into four tiers from 1 to 4 with Tier 1 and 2 settlements expected to accommodate the majority of  Sedgemoor’s strategic growth requirements. Pawlett is a Tier 3 settlement. However, the Council conceded that the appellant had demonstrated a need for 17 affordable housing units in Pawlett, thereby meeting the requirements set out in SLP Policy T3a which supports proposals for mixed tenure affordable housing and market housing to meet an identified local affordable housing need on sites that are outside but well related to existing Tier 3 settlement boundaries. AAH Consultants also made the point that the proposal for of 41 dwellings would only result in a 10% rise in the resident population of Pawlett. The Inspector agreed that this would be modest in terms of the size of the existing village. He further noted that the proposals would not seriously undermine the planned approach to the distribution of development and would form a natural extension of the village northwards.

With regard to the second main issue, the Council pointed to a pinch point in the width of the A38 frontage which, it argued, would prevent the provision of a safe and attractive entrance to the development. However, the Inspector noted that 2m wide footway would be provided across the highway frontage to link with the existing footway leading towards Pawlett. In addition, a separate footway would be provided to enable a shorter link to the proposed retail facility.  The National Planning Policy Framework (the NPPF) explains that development should only be prevented or refused on highway grounds if there would be unacceptable impact on highway safety, or the residual cumulative impacts on the road network would be severe. The Inspector commented that he was satisfied that such thresholds would not be met in this case.

In weighing the merits of the scheme, the Inspector noted that the Government’s overall objective is to significantly boost the supply of homes and the provision of 41 new homes would be significant in the local context, particularly meeting affordable housing need and therefore carries substantial weight in the overall planning balance.

Great work by AAH Planning, AAH Consultants and the wider consultant team.