Following our recent Green Belt success in Cheltenham, SF Planning have secured planning permission for a Metropolitan Green Belt development, this time in Reigate, Surrey.
The application was for four dwellings on a site comprising of a collection of cattery buildings, mobile homes, stables, containers, and a large utilitarian barn to the rear, as well as extensive areas of hardstanding.
National and local planning policy states that the construction of new buildings in the Green Belt is inappropriate. However, we successfully argued that this proposal fell within the ‘partial or complete redevelopment of previously developed land’ exception, as set out at paragraph 149(g) of the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF).
As part of the application, SF Planning submitted evidence and statutory declarations to demonstrate that the site had operated as a cattery business and for equestrian purposes for many years and qualifies as ‘previously developed land’.
The proposed redevelopment of the site to provide four ‘barn-style’ dwellings, reflecting the site’s rural vernacular, was seen as a vast improvement in landscape and visual terms. The development will also reduce the overall footprint, height and volume of built form on the site, to the benefit of the ‘openness’ of the green belt.
Planning committee subsequently resolved to permit the scheme subject to conditions in line with the officer recommendation. Committee members noted the scheme’s sympathetic design and the comprehensive nature of the application.
For more information on this Metropolitan Green Belt development project please contact Chris Wilkinson.
For assistance on any planning project, large or small, please get in touch:
t: Cheltenham: 01242 231575 | Gloucester: 01452 527997 | London: 020 3763 8005
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