Hi - I have a piece of agricultural land in the green belt of romney marsh. I would like to get planning permission to build some houses on it and would like to build affordable homes for people. Having researched the history of the land it appears that there used to be a house on the land in 1844 - will this improve my chances of getting planning permission?
No. Without knowing the area, development in green belt area is generally refused. There might just be a special case, for example the site is next to a village envelope or the boundary line is not in a sensible place.
And for once, I am probably more on the side of the planners on this one, though not with those at Surrey Heath who would not allow my brother to build a two storey extension on to his house as it was in the green belt and the extension exceeded the permissible % increase in floor area. A single storey extension with an identical footprint was fine though!
Silly really.
I'm not a great supporter of the huge swathes of green belt. It puts too much pressure on lower density period housing. Round here, the number of lovely dual aspect detached Victorian villas that have been bulldozed to make way for soulless flats is depressing.
Rather like the conservation areas, I would prefer just a few particularly pretty places to be quite so protected. The more soulless estates they build on the edges of towns, the better. I might even be able to afford a large detached Victorian villa, then.
Christian.
Green Belts should be scrapped. They ere supposed to be a belt that the town or city inhabitants can wander onto - open common land. They have become barriers reinforced by country people to keep out the hated townies. Some are not green with industry and intensive farming on them.
The way to go about it is have an "eco" house.
The 2004 PPS7 planning law, may hopefully pave the way for people to live back in the countryside and build individual homes on greenfield sites. The proviso is that it must be an eco house, well designed, modern, with advanced construction techniques. Taken from the act: Planning Policy Statement 7: Sustainable Development in Rural Areas
"11. Very occasionally the exceptional quality and innovative nature of the design of a proposed, isolated new house may provide this special justification for granting planning permission. Such a design should be truly outstanding and ground-breaking, for example, in its use of materials, methods of construction or its contribution to protecting and enhancing the environment, so helping to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas. The value of such a building will be found in its reflection of the highest standards in contemporary architecture, the significant enhancement of its immediate setting and its sensitivity to the defining characteristics of the local area."
But these are just the sort of places that don't tend to have shops and PT and so all but force their residents into getting out the car to do almost anything. Then the same planning department will be looking for solar panels or some over nod in the green direction.
The message from "oktopusinc" contains these words:
I didn't know Romney Marsh had a green belt. Lots of sheep, and Walland Marsh nearby but a green belt?
My mum was born in Ruckinge - or was it Bilsington?
They do have shop, but not in walking distance. They are a central shopping mall.
A good thing too. The power of the supermarkets forces in the shopping malls, in which one of the big boys will the central Mega store. That doesn't mean they have to ignore eco issues. Also they are built to higher insulation standards, so use less fuel anyway. Add on more insulation and solar panels, etc, and they are quite eco indeed.
The EV looks like it will be common place, as prototypes are quite starting in their range, economy and performance - and pretty soon too. If so, then these places will not be so un-green at all.
No Next meeting of the Planning Committee is on Wednesday 14th December Do attend, you will see lots of similar applications shredded. :-)
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A carefully presented PPS7 may tip it.
The OP wants to build some affordable (i.e. smallish) houses. PPS7 says
?Very occasionally the exceptional quality and innovative nature of the design of a proposed, isolated new house may provide this special justification for granting planning permission. Such a design should be truly outstanding and ground-breaking, for example, in its use of materials, methods of construction or its contribution to protecting and enhancing the environment, so helping to raise standards of design more generally in rural areas. The value of such a building will be found in its reflection of the highest standards in contemporary architecture, the significant enhancement of its immediate setting and its sensitivity to the defining characteristics of the local area.?
i.e at the other end of the scale.
It's sad, isn't it, that "affordable" seems to rule out quality and innovation.
I wonder if it would be possible to build a block of flats that met the quality requirements but were individually affordable.
Would probably not meet the isolated single dwelling expectation of the planners though, and probably wouldn't be attractive to buyers/tenants.
Owain
They keep a much larger shredder called the "DPM PPS7 compliance BOLLOCKS" for such special presentations.
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Any examples?
Do you understand the concept of "very occasionally" ?
This means exemplary design, situation without objection and probably brown envelopes.
It said that.
You made that bit up.
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.....and use a very expensive architect who is able to bribe enough people on the local council in order for them to adopt this viewpoint..."
Probably not, as modern building practice is fairly well optimised to meet the regulations at lowest possible cost.
I'm talking about Eco friendly affordable housing with a managed bio-diversified part of the land - affordable because I am not as greedy as all the other developers! The housing would be cheap for local people and would be legally kept at an affordable price on resale to stop people trying to make the profit that I give up on them. I know there is a slim chance of using pps7 cruiteria to swing the planning in rural areas but just wondered if the fact that there was a small community there in the past (about another 3 lost houses within 300 yard radius) it may have a beneficial outcome.
The Natural Philos> > T> >>> A carefully presented PPS7 may tip it.
It all depends on the size of your brown envelope budget or the amount to which you wish to research and support councillors' hobby horse projects.
Once you have that basis, you can layer the thin arguments on top to help them with the justification should they ever be asked about it.
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