LPC (Trull) Ltd Director Andrew Miles MRTPI has recently acted for Wiltshire Council to assist them with their defence of a planning appeal brought by Care UK against the Council’s refusal of planning application 20/08255/FUL for an 80-bedroom care home at Land to the North of Bath Road, Pickwick, Corsham.
The appeal was determined by the Inquiry procedure, which took place between 7th – 10th December 2021 and virtually on 25th January 2022. LPC’s Andrew Miles acted as the Council’s Expert Witness for all planning related matters for the appeal.
The outcome of the appeal (ref APP/Y3940/W/21/3276908) was published on 8th April 2022, and the Planning Inspector J Wilson dismissed the appeal, upholding the Council’s original decision to refuse the application. In arriving at her decision, the Inspector identified the main issues for the appeal as
- Whether the proposed development would preserve the character or appearance of the Pickwick Conservation Area (PCA);
- Whether the proposed development would preserve the setting of the PCA;
- Whether the proposed development would preserve the settings of adjacent listed buildings; and
- If harm is identified to heritage assets, whether any such harm would be outweighed by public benefits arising from the proposal.
In dismissing the appeal, the Inspector found that the appeal proposal would not be of a scale appropriate to the nature of the settlement of Corsham in a localised context. Neither would it respect the character or setting of the settlement. As such the development would not represent the exceptional circumstances for the provision of specialist accommodation required by CP 46 of the WCS.
The public benefits and other material considerations in this case, when taken as a whole, did not justify taking a decision other than in accordance with the adopted development plan and the Framework.