City & County (C&C), a developer that specialises in developing historic and heritage sites, has failed in a High Court bid to get the green light to build houses on the site of the National Police College in Bramshill, near Hook in Hampshire.
C&C bought the 106 hectare site from the Home Office in 2015, when the college closed. Until then, it had been the principal police staff training establishment in England and Wales since 1960.
The site is made of a Grade I listed Jacobean mansion and listed buildings, a listed park and gardens and a number of 1950s buildings put up by the Home Office at a time when the department wasn’t subject to planning permission rules.
C&C wants to redevelop the mansion and stable into apartments, demolish most of the modern buildings, and replace them with 235 houses, build nine lakeside houses, and another cluster of 14 houses elsewhere on the the site.
However, following a lengthy planning inquiry, a planning inspector rejected the proposals on a number of grounds. She found that, among other things, parts of the development would be in an “unsustainable location” resulting in isolated housing in the countryside. She also concluded that parts of the project would be harmful to the character and appearance of the area and wouldn’t preserve the special character of the listed buildings.
And in a ruling handed down today, High Court Judge Mr Justice Waksman backed the planning inspector’s approach, rejecting almost all of the grounds for appeal bought by C&C.
He found that the inspector hadn’t erred when considering planning policy on isolated homes and approaches to heritage.
However, the developer may be able to use some of the existing 51 modern existing residential units on the site. Although, according to the ruling, C&C planned to demolish the buildings, the planning inspector vetoed alternative plans to redevelop them. In his ruling the judge said that there was an existing right to use those buildings for C2 purposes.
City & Country Bramshill Limited v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government; Hart District Council; Historic England; the National Trust for Places of Historic Interest or Natural Beauty
Planning Court (Wacksman J)
James Strachan QC and Ned Helme (Instructed by Pinsent Masons LLP, Solicitors) for the Claimant/Appellant
Guy Williams and Alistair Mills (Instructed by the Government Legal Department) for the First Defendant/Respondent
Richard Ground QC and Ben Du Feu (Instructed by Historic England Legal Department) for the Third Defendant/First Interested Party
Melissa Murphy (Instructed by National Trust Legal Department) for the Second Interested Party
