Exception not a rule

3 December 2012

I read recently about a successful planning appeal to build a detached house in a green belt location in Berkshire. The plot lay within the village boundary, but was outside the settlement boundary. It was an open paddock, not an infill site on a built-up frontage. I would like to find out more as it is relevant to a planning application I wish to make, but I cannot find details on the Planning Inspectorate’s website (www.planning-inspectorate.gov.uk) as I do not know the name of the district council in Berkshire. Can you help?

Answers

With six different Berkshire councils and numerous appeals being handled by each, you would need to provide a little more to go on. That said, decisions like this are taken from time to time, apparently against the normal ‘no building outside the settlement boundary’ dogma. But invariably each case is different, and planning decisions are supposed to be made on their merits, not on precedent. So a stray positive decision might provide encouragement to chance your arm with an appeal, but it doesn’t set a new benchmark against which other cases must be judged.

3 December 2012

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