Communities Secretary Eric Pickles has dismissed an appeal that would have allowed up to 35 homes to be built near the village of Malpas in Cheshire, in an area for which a neighbourhood plan proposal had been submitted to Cheshire West & Chester Council, for reasons that include ‘the significant harm to landscape character, significant adverse visual impact and slight adverse harm to heritage assets.’
The planning authority had refused outline permission for the scheme. Its emerging local plan demonstrated a five-year supply of housing sites including significant activity around Malpas.
Dismissing the recovered appeal as recommended by the inspector, the Secretary of State concluded ‘the benefits of this particular scheme in terms of new housing, including affordable housing, and associated economic benefits are insufficient to outweigh the significant harm to landscape character, significant adverse visual impact and slight adverse harm to heritage assets’.
