Friends of the Lizard 19 - Addendum

Planning Matters: Halwyn Public Inquiry

The planning implications for the Lizard Peninsula of the decision, following the Halwyn Public Inquiry, are very significant and are explained by David Richardson in the adjacent Newsletter item.  I attended and gave evidence at the Inquiry as the local representative of the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England, having made representations to Kerrier District Council on this and earlier applications for the site.  Halwyn, at approximately two miles north of St Keverne, is very prominently located in the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, with panoramic views to St Anthony Head and the entrance to Falmouth harbour.
 

An application for the site in 2001, to build a dwelling, fishing lakes and ancillary development, was withdrawn by the applicants when it became clear that the Secretary of State would take the decision out of the hands of the District Council’s Planning Committee, which had indicated that it was minded to ignore national and local planning policies and officers’ advice.  However, as happens so frequently in such circumstances, a revised application was submitted for a temporary mobile home and the fishing lakes etc., and the Planning Committee, again against officers’ advice, proposed to approve it.  I knew from past experience that, once a mobile home with a septic tank, garden, greenhouse etc was installed, Kerrier’s Planning Committee would be under pressure to grant permission for a permanent dwelling, whether the fishing business was viable or continued or not.

On a request from the CPRE, the Secretary of State called in the application and a Public Inquiry was held in Camborne on 23 July.  The applicants’ agent did them no favours by introducing ‘special local needs’ as an issue. The whole Inquiry was a disgrace since Kerrier’s Planning Committee was prepared to sanction a departure from its own District Local Plan and required planning officers to defend that decision, which had been contrary to officers’ advice to the Committee.
 

The Office of the Deputy Prime Minister issued the report and decision on 27 October, agreeing with the Inquiry Inspector's recommendations and refused the application on several points of planning law, the main one being that, despite a limited degree of economic and social benefit, the development would not accord with planning policies which are intended to protect the open countryside, the coastal landscape and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

Friends of the Lizard and the Campaign for the Protection of Rural England feel vindicated in their efforts to oppose this application which, we hope, will remind Kerrier’s Planning Committee of their duty to protect the environment against sporadic development in the countryside. 

Avril Evens

Planning implications of the Halwyn Public Inquiry:

Avril Evens deserves thanks and congratulations for her major effort in the various Halwyn planning applications’ development control procedures.  Too often, we see applicants seeking to build dwellings sporadically in open countryside and the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty, on the flimsiest of excuses of economic viability, and in total conflict with established national and local planning policies.  Too often, also, we witness Kerrier’s Planning Committee disregarding professional officers’ advice, frequently expressed in the strongest terms, and allowing such developments.  Fortunately, planning procedures allow for questionable decisions, taken against policy and advice, to be taken out of the Committee’s jurisdiction, to be resolved at a Public Inquiry headed by an independent Inspector.  This is what happened with the latest Halwyn application, as reported above, and the Inspector’s report, supported very substantially by the Office of the Deputy Prime Minister, contains important implications for other future development proposals in our area.  The Secretary of State agreed with the Inspector that:

• The application site is located within an area where local and national planning policies provide strict control over new development and priority is given to the conservation and enhancement of the natural beauty of the area;

• Development control decisions affecting AONBs should favour conservation of the natural beauty of the landscape and that the environmental effects of new proposals will be a major consideration; 

• Planning Policy Guidance No 7 advises that isolated new houses in the countryside require special justification and that an essential need for an on-site residential accommodation had not been demonstrated in this case;

• The relevant coastal policies should be applied within this area and that this proposal does not require a coastal location; 

• The proposed development would not accord with the local and national planning policies for the open countryside, including those which relate to the coast and the AONB.

Two further significant factors are worth highlighting as a result of this Inquiry:

• A ministerial statement, made by Nick Raynsford on 13 June 2000, was specifically mentioned in the Decision, which confirmed that the landscape qualities of National Parks and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty are equivalent and should share the highest status of protection in relation to landscape and scenic beauty;

• Kerrier District Council should be condemned for requiring its professional planning officers to defend decisions made by the Planning Committee against those officers’ advice.  Most other local planning authorities, we are informed, require the Chairman of the Planning Committee to present the case for the Committee’s decision in such circumstances.  We believe that to be the most appropriate policy and will write to Kerrier’s Chief Executive to say so.

David Richardson