A planning inspector has approved proposals for a housing development near Lower Dicker, overturning a decision by Wealden District Council.
In a decision notice published on Wednesday (July 31), a planning inspector has granted in principle permission to build either three or four new dwellings on land to the east of Coldharbour Road.
Wealden District Council had refused the scheme in May last year, having raised concerns about its “unsustainable” location.
In a report at the time, a Wealden planning spokesman said: “The proposal would provide a modest contribution toward meeting the council’s five-year housing land supply, but with a limited range of services at Lower Dicker, new occupants would be heavily reliant on a car to access services in larger settlements.”
The report added: “Whilst the council does not presently have a five-year housing land supply, policies of restraint in rural locations remain relevant.
“The location for development would result in identifiable harm to spatial strategy and not reduce need to travel, and set against the [National Planning Policy Framework] would significantly and demonstrably outweigh any contribution to the housing land supply and limited economic benefit to existing services and the construction phase. As such permission in principle should be refused.”
But these concerns were given limited weight by the planning inspector, who judged the downsides would be outweighed by the benefits of additional homes.
In their decision notice, the inspector said: “In light of the significant and protracted shortfall in housing land supply, in a district where there are significant landscape constraints elsewhere in the rural areas, I have given moderate weight to the delivery of a small number of new family homes in this location, along with the associated economic benefits.”
They added: “Since the level of harm and the level of benefit carry similar weight, the adverse impacts of granting permission in principle would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits, when assessed against the policies in the Framework taken as a whole.
“As such, the proposal benefits from the presumption in favour of sustainable development as defined in paragraph 11d of the Framework.”
As an “in principle” scheme, further permission will be needed before construction can begin .
In its original application, the applicant submitted indicative drawings illustrating two possible layouts of the site. These both showed detached dwellings facing the road, with one layout showing three houses and the other showing four (pictured).
For further information on the scheme see application reference WD/2023/0922/PIP on the Wealden District Council website.
