{"id":30937,"date":"2021-08-20T16:52:10","date_gmt":"2021-08-20T15:52:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsblogsnew.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=30937"},"modified":"2021-08-20T16:52:10","modified_gmt":"2021-08-20T15:52:10","slug":"chilterns-conservation-board-makes-formal-complaint-on-aonb-appeal-decision-as-dc-goes-to-high-court","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/?p=30937","title":{"rendered":"Chilterns Conservation Board makes formal complaint on AONB appeal decision as DC goes to High Court"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"South Oxfordshire District Council (DC) has announced that it will make an application to the High Court for a review of a Planning Inspector\u2019s decision \u2013 criticised as \u2018off-piste\u2019 by the Chilterns Conservation Board – to allow a \u2018care village\u2019 in the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).<\/h3>\n

image:\u00a0Chilterns Conservation Board website<\/em><\/h6>\n

<\/p>\n

\u2026 Development of this land will demonstrably harm the special qualities of the Chilterns AONB\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

\u2026 represents a significant change to the interpretation of planning policy relating to the conservation and enhancement in AONBs\u2026<\/span><\/em><\/h2>\n

South Oxfordshire DC writes:<\/p>\n

On 25 June 2021, the Planning Inspector granted permission on appeal for a continuing care retirement community care village at Little Sparrows, Sonning Common.\u00a0 South Oxfordshire District Council had previously refused permission for this development due to the potential impact on the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.<\/p>\n

Following legal advice, and after consultation with the Leader of South Oxfordshire District Council and the Chair of the Planning Committee, the district council considers that there are sufficient grounds to challenge the Planning Inspector\u2019s decision and has therefore made an application to the High Court for a review.<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n

\n

Chiltern\u2019s AONB writes:<\/p>\n

The Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty(ANOB) is a nationally designated landscape protected for its special qualities, including the steep chalk escarpments, its wild-flower-rich downland, nine rare chalk streams, its ancient woodland, ancient routeways and an extensive and diverse archaeological history.\u00a0 Development of this land will demonstrably harm the special qualities of the Chilterns AONB including the mosaic of semi-wooded dipslope that envelopes Sonning Common and which provides a strong sense of rural openness around the village.<\/p>\n

In his\u00a0decision<\/a>, the Inspector rejected the views of South Oxfordshire District Council (including its landscape advisor and consultants), the parish council and local residents, as well as the Chilterns Conservation Board \u2013 the statutory body responsible for the protection and enhancement of the Chilterns AONB. Instead, the Inspector drew heavily on the views of the developer\u2019s consultant and, in our view, has gone significantly off-piste.<\/p>\n

We are particularly concerned that the Inspector has developed his own approach to assessing the landscape value of the area, which falsely implies that the legal and policy protections that apply to AONBs can be selectively interpreted. In effect, he decided (a) that the appeal site and its surroundings were not in themselves special enough to be protected, and (b) that the site\u2019s proximity to the village and existing commercial buildings justified its development.<\/p>\n

To do so represents a significant change to the interpretation of planning policy relating to the conservation and enhancement in AONBs at a time when the Government has made clear its\u00a0intention<\/a>\u00a0to protect more of the countryside for people and for nature. The Inspector\u2019s decision is likely to have serious consequences for not only other locations in the Chilterns, but also across all of England\u2019s protected landscapes.<\/p>\n

The Inspector also unnecessarily and unreasonably undermined the council\u2019s assessment of its five-year supply of housing land and did not give sufficient attention to the possibility of alternative ways in which the need for extra-care housing could have been met without harm to the AONB.<\/p>\n

As a result, the Chilterns Conservation Board has written a letter of complaint to the Planning Inspectorate. We are also in conversation with South Oxfordshire District Council exploring what other actions may be taken.<\/p>\n

Read more….<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

South Oxfordshire District Council (DC) has announced that it will make an application to the High Court for a review of a Planning Inspector\u2019s decision \u2013 criticised as \u2018off-piste\u2019 by the Chilterns Conservation Board – to allow a \u2018care village\u2019 … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-30937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sector-newsblog"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=30937"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30939,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30937\/revisions\/30939"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=30937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=30937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsblogs.ihbc.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=30937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}