Hawley Park Farm, Hampshire
Image: © Fluid
Client: Crest Nicholson
LPA: Hart District Council
The site benefitted from an extant planning permission for 126 residential dwellings, however, upon acquiring the site, Crest sought to improve upon the approved scheme and Boyer coordinated the submission of a revised full planning application, which was submitted to Hart District Council in February 2018.
After lengthy negotiations with the Local Planning Authority and three separate Committee meetings, the application was ultimately refused by Members for five reasons. In negotiating the Statement of Common Ground for the appeal, Boyer successfully agreed with the Council that four of those reasons could be addressed by the completion of a S106 Agreement, resulting in only one matter requiring discussion at the hearing.
At the hearing, Boyer successfully demonstrated to the Inspector that the relevant Development Plan policies were out of date, that any less than substantial harm to the Conservation Area was substantially outweighed by the public benefits of the proposal and accordingly the tilted planning balance must be engaged and the presumption in favour of sustainable development must apply.
In reaching his decision the Inspector also determined that the Council had failed to provide sufficient evidence to demonstrate that three of the requested financial contributions identified in the S106 Agreement met the lawful tests set out at Regulation 122 of the CIL Regulation 2010 (as amended). Consequently, these contributions are not enforceable, resulting in a saving of £1.3 million.
