Wales News and Update. July 2019

I suspect Welsh Planners attending the Wales Planning Conference were still taking in the content of early Keynote speech by Julie James, Planning Minister in Wales ( or rather the Minister for Housing and Local Government to give the official title) recently when a man from the Wales Audit Office set about presenting its report on the Effectiveness of Local Planning Authorities in Wales. The Headline points emerging:

• Reduced resources across Welsh Local Planning Authorities. (budgets reduced by 50% since 2008/9.

• Planning Services struggling to deliver an increasingly complex system. Poor communication.

• Increased planning application processing times.

• Lack of resilience in services.

• The 2016 pre-application front-loading process isn’t delivering hoped-for outcomes.

• Recommendation that Planning fees better reflect the cost of delivering the service.

As they struggle to cope with that, Welsh Government issued for consultation, its updated Draft Development Plans Manual (Edition 3) reflecting changing legislation and PPW10. Particular matters include guidance on viability (assumption of viability at the point of site allocation in an adopted plan), the front-loading of LDP work and evidence base, high level viability testing at Candidate site stage and detailed testing of strategic sites plus a duty on developers and landowners to engage fully and meaningfully in the process of promoting sites in the Plan. The way WG sees public involvement in the preparation of Development Plans and how that subsequently feeds into the development management process (such that communities should not get any surprises when a planning application comes forward), suggest to me an awful lot of work on communication by both WG and Councils still needs to be done.

Flood risk never far from our minds . Hot off the press is a consultation on the draft National Strategy for Flood and Coastal Erosion Risk Management setting out WG objectives for that. It was expected that a new draft TAN 15 (development and flood risk) would emerge alongside for consultation given the obvious links. It hasn’t yet, but my spies indicate this will emerge before the summer recess in Cardiff.

HBF Wales and others have drawn attention a long awaited appeal decision issued for up to 189 houses made by the Minister in Wrexham. The key issues concerned housing land supply (nil given its expired UDP) , Green Barrier location (and intended re-designation as such in emerging LDP), housing need, uncertainty despite emerging LDP and totality of other other matters (including national place-making outcomes and contribution to sustainable development). These amounted to Very Exceptional Circumstances to set aside the PPW presumption against inappropriate development in the Green Barrier. The case is all the more interesting because the dis-application of para 6.2 of TAN 1 was highly material and the Minister sought to hear further evidence on the issue.

The Minister accepted the Inspectors report and as decision maker allowed the appeal. It is helpful not least in that it provides clarity, as I have been advising clients since last July, that the Minister’s letter of 18 July 2018 does not say that no weight should be given to the need to increase housing supply. The decision confirms that a decision maker has the discretion on the evidence and facts of any particular case, (in spite of the dis-application of para 6.2) when engaging the presumption in favour of sustainable development to conclude that the need to provide or increase housing land supply remains a significant material consideration.

Lodge Park given 12 month holiday use.

Working for a long-time client, they were thrilled today to have learned that their planning permission for a lodge park in Flintshire has been extended to allow for holiday use through the year. This is the second consent we have secured for this client to provide high quality, year round holiday use on caravans parks. securing additional economic benefits to North Wales.

Day Nursery conditions removed and varied

After nearly 2 years trying to extend and open her day nursery in Wolverhampton, PLPlanning were approached to assist. A day nursery has run from the site for many years and had an urgent need to provide additional space to meet demand for places. Following a previous refusal of planning permission, planning permission to extend the nursery had been secured. However permission was subject to newly imposed conditions:

1. Restricting the hours of operation and numbers of children who could attend the nursery (where there was no previous restriction),

2. Limiting the numbers of children who could play outside (where there was no previous restriction) and,

3. Imposing a requirement to carry out a Traffic Regulation Order (TRO) to limit parking on the road.

The Council had refused permission to vary one condition and delete the other.

The appeal set out what the Inspector in his decision letter described as a compelling case to delete the TRO condition completely on the grounds it was unreasonable and unnecessary. The inspector also concluded that restricting the numbers of children playing outside would place a significant burden on the current operation of the nursery, which has no such restrictions and accepted that the difference between the impacts of the existing, the approved and the scheme as sought would not be materially discernable. He therefore removed the restriction on outdoor play number, increased the opening hours and approved to up to 106 children attending the day nursery.

Yet another great result and delighted client.

A Welsh Planning Inspectorate.

The Planning Inspectorate is an Independent Executive Agency of Government operating principally from Bristol with a Welsh base in Cardiff. It manages casework on planning and related applications and appeals, including Developments of National Significance and examines Local Development Plans (LDPs) using a team of dedicated Welsh Inspectors and administrators.

Welsh Government Minister Minister for Housing and Local Government stated that (in wales) “Planning law and policy has diverged and continues to diverge at an accelerating rate from England, in order to meet the unique needs of communities and businesses in Wales” . She has therefore instructed officials to begin work on a separate, dedicated service for Wales which is expected to be in place by the end of the current term of Government.

SUCCESS: Hand Car Wash

We were approached to see how we could assist a new client where a temporary hand car wash permission had expired and the operator wanted both to renew the permission and secure Sunday operating.

The renewal of an expired temporary planning was relatively straightforward. Extending the operating hours to a Sunday was something the Council has previously refused to sanction citing amenity considerations to neighbours gardens. An appeal had previously been dismissed. There’s nothing quite like a challenge.

The facts of the case were, on examination, quite simple. The hard car wash was sited in the grounds of a petrol filling station and in part replaced jet wash facilities at the PFS. Both the PFS and jet wash could operate 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Car sales were also allowed to operate 7 days a week. In summary a case that additional Sunday use would not be substantially harmful given the scope of existing permissible operations on the land, setting out mitigation measures including boundary fencing and for jet- washing to take place within a booth to reduce spray and noise was set out. It was also argued that restricting Sunday opening reduced competition contrary to national policy and that it could in fact increase movements in and around the site by forcing additional trips at other times. Finally. it was set out that nothing in the Council’s planning policies restricted Sunday operating.

A delighted client when I returned from a short break recently to a new permanent permission with 7 day opening.

Conservation Area Apartments in Colwyn Bay

Acting for SCDLtd, we are delighted to confirm receipt of planning permission for 7 apartments in Colwyn Bay. Sited on a former school car park in the Pwllycrochan Conservation Area, the development posed a number of siting, design and access challenges to negotiate before ensuring this new development preserves and enhances a very special and high quality Conservation Area. It’s a great example where working with the planning authority, client and Architects Parry Davies from pre-application through to decision secure’s a successful outcome for all. We have greatly enjoyed working with this new client and look forward both to seeing it developed in the near future and to future projects with them.

Residential Site in Flintshire. For sale.

Delighted to announce that a client site has come to the market via colleagues at Legal Owen, Chester. More details here

It benefits from outline planning permission for “residential development” secured at Appeal. You can view the Appeal decision here.

At some 0.75 ha or thereabouts, the outline permission provides for some 23 dwellings accessed from Pen y Coed Road, Drury, near Buckley. It is subject to a S106 obligation to deliver on site nature conservation area, as well as commuted sums for Education (£73542.00) and open space at £1100 per dwelling.

Please contact me directly (or Legal Owen) should you you require any further information.

Green Belt Permission

Back in 2014 we secured planning permission for subdivision of a large house and garden and conversion of its outbuildings to a new house. Last year the client, approached us again to see whether extensions to the building would be possible. Being sited in the Cheshire Green Belt created issues with the concept of the “original” building, how that might in interpreted, the concept of inappropriate development and how that would be interpreted for the purposes of “inapproproppara 145(c) of the NPPF (the extension or alteration of a building provided that it does not result in disproportionate additions over and above the size of the original building) and whether the proposal amounted to that exception. After lots of hard work and pre-application discussions we have today secured planning permission for our clients enlargements and extensions.

If all those jargony terms and words confuse you - we exist to cut through them so you don’t have to and get permission.

Affordable Housing secured in Denbighshire.

We are delighted to announce another success in securing permission in Denbighshire - acting for Rhyl Based Contractor NWPS Construction Ltd to secure permission for 17 Affordable Apartments on a vacant dairy site in Rhyl to be managed by Cartrefi Conwy. Sited in an area of Flood Risk, the proposal led to objections from NRW. We set out a strong case that the scheme would deliver much need affordable housing in the town and would offer significant regeneration benefits. The planning history of land site (including an allocation in the LDP which the NRW had not objected to at the time) weighed strongly in the planning case set out and the design provides for undercroft parking and raised accommodation to mitigate flood risk.

PLPlanning acted on the scheme from initial enquiry with the Council, through Community pre-planning exercises, setting out the planning strategy and case and managed the application on behalf of NWPS and Cartefi Conwy. Mark Roberts at McCormick Architects Chester, led the scheme design

Domestic success in AONB

We were approached to review a refusal of planning permission with a view to Appeal.

The Council considered the proposals to change this rural cottage in an isolated position in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty would be out of scale and character to the existing cottage.

We set out an alternative strategy to the default Appeal route and recommended some minor design modifications before looking into the history of the site. We noted that the house had already been substantially changed from its original form (in some instances with the benefit of planning permission). A re-submitted application was supported by our extensive knowledge of applications and appeals raising similar issues to this case. We set out in a detailed supporting letter how Planning Inspectors had interpreted, in previous appeals, the policies and relating supplementary guidance the Council were relying on to support its refusal.

We concluded the Councils initial approach was at odds with the interpretation Planning Inspectors were taking and that a second refusal of planning permission could not be justified.

We have delighted clients this morning who have secured permission for their own grand design in a stunning location, far quicker and cheaper than had the Appeal route been followed.