Longbury Hill House, Storrington
Overview
ECE Planning secured full planning permission for the erection of a two storey dwelling at Longbury Hill House in Storrington. The application was a revised application following the refusal of a planning application in 2016 and dismissal of an Appeal in 2017.
The site is situated outside of the built-up area boundary of Storrington but immediately adjoins it to the south. Within the 2017 Appeal decision the Inspector acknowledged that:
“as the development would be beyond the BUAB and concerns a site that has not been allocated for development, in either the Council’s development plan or a neighbourhood plan, there would be conflict with Policies 1, 2, 3, 4 and 26 of the HDPF and paragraph 55 of the National Planning Policy Framework. That conflict would in part arise because there is not a specific functional need for the house to be located in the countryside.
However, I consider that providing one house in this location, given the absence of harm to the countryside’s landscape character and the proximity of other dwellings, would not materially undermine the HDPF’s settlement strategy. I therefore conclude that this would be a suitable location for one dwelling.”
It was therefore considered that the principle of development had been established but the Inspector’s concerns needed to be addressed as part of a revised application:
“While I have found that this would be a suitable location for an additional dwelling, the provision of the house would be harmful to the spacious character and appearance of the area. The harm that I have identified gives rise to conflict with the HDPF and because of that conflict this would be an unsustainable form of development. I therefore conclude that the appeal should be dismissed.”
In response to the Appeal decision, ECE Planning, alongside the Applicant and PWG Architects made a number of changes to address the concerns raised by the Inspector. The changes included enlarging the size of the proposed plot and repositioning the proposed dwelling in order to achieve larger separation distances from the eastern and western boundaries. The changes also included limiting the proposed tarmacking of the site and proposing a shared driveway for the existing and proposed houses to use.
The project team undertook various studies in order to demonstrate that the application fully accorded with the character and appearance of the local area; this included studying the local areas eclectic mix of proximities and distances between properties, site areas and dwelling heights.
It was successfully demonstrated that the size of the proposed revised dwelling was appropriate for its substantial plot size, the setting and overall context of the area. The application was subsequently approved at Committee by Members.
