West Waddy ADP have won a planning appeal for 7 apartments on land at 116 Oxford Road, Abingdon. The scheme had been negotiated with officers of the Council who had recommended permission, but Members voted to refuse the application.

One of the reasons of refusal related to the principle of apartments in this location. This rejection of the principal of the development is why the appellants costs were awarded against the Vale of White Horse District Council. Such resistance to smaller units of accommodation is clearly contrary to Government policy as was adjudged by the Inspector to represent unreasonable behaviour.

Another notable element of this appeal was a debate about appropriate levels of parking provision. The scheme as originally submitted proposed one parking space per dwelling. Despite the application being accompanied by a Transportation Statement that showed the site to be served by a very good bus service the County Council as Highway Authority asked for 1.5 car spaces per unit to be provided and the District then referred to the visual impact of increased parking provision in their reasons for refusal. The Inspector felt that in this location one space per dwelling was perfectly acceptable and in allowing the appeal imposed a condition to this effect.

Government Policy is very clear that mixed communities are to be encouraged in planning terms and it surprising that some Councils still resist the principle of apartments in areas where the existing residential mix is predominantly larger houses. It may be that more Member training is required. At the end of the day Local Planning Authorities must be able to justify their reasons for refusing consent if they are to avoid having costs awarded against them.

Industrial Building Appeal allowed in Bourne End, Bucks

An appeal in respect of a proposed additional industrial building within an existing estate has been allowed by a Government Inspector.

The main issue in the appeal was the impact of the traffic generated by the proposed development on a nearby junction. The County Highway Authority had adopted a dogmatic approach of insisting that vision was such that no new development should be allowed which might generate additional traffic through the junction. WWADP were able to demonstrate that the Council had not applied this approach consistently and in any event the limited traffic arising from the development would not lead to a significantly harmful effect on highway safety at the junction. The Inspector accepted all our arguments and allowed the appeal.

This decision shows that Highway Authorities sometimes need to be more pragmatic. The client was willing to take the matter to appeal and hence we were able to obtain consent for them, although clearly this took a considerable amount of time. The irony is that the Highway Authority are very busy at the moment and the time that they spent defending the matter at appeal could have been better spent on providing advice on other applications.

Planning Permission granted for new office building in Marlow, Bucks.

Permission has been secured on behalf of Comland Wethered House Ltd for the erection of a 2 storey office building on land fronting on to Pound Lane, Marlow. The site is in a town centre location and follows a number of previous refusals for development of the site.

The application was carefully prepared to respect the Conservation Area in which the site lies and was supported by a Transportation Assessment, a report on a protected tree and a Design and Access Statement.

An interesting feature of this scheme is that the previous use of the site was as a car park as part of a major development permitted in the 1990's. At that time the approach taken to parking provision was to apply minimum standards. Now that the national approach is to apply maximum standards the client spotted that the site was over-provided with parking spaces and that there was therefore an opportunity to promote development instead of a car park.

This consent shows how WWADP can co-ordinate a team of professionals to provide the evidence to the Local Planning Authority such that they change their minds and permit the development of a site that they have previously resisted.

A related scheme for a three storey building on the site is currently at appeal and West Waddy ADP have also prepared the evidence for that.