Developer Welbeck Land has been given the green light to go ahead with its speculative development in countryside outside Thornbury in Gloucestershire.
A High Court judge yesterday overruled objections by the local council and upheld the developer’s outline planning permission.
The company has been in dispute with South Gloucestershire District Council over its plans to build 350 dwellings and a 70-unit elderly care facility on a 22ha plot to the east of the town.
According to its website, Welbeck Strategic Land LLP, the Welbeck Land unit involved in this case, works in partnership with landowners to obtain and optimise planning consents on land which can then be sold to housebuilders.
The council refused Welbeck outline permission in March 2017 saying the development was “speculative in nature and would not result in a comprehensively planned development, comprising the vision for Thornbury”.
However, in May last year a planning inspector overruled the council, finding that there was a lack of a five-year housing land supply, and benefits were not outweighed by adverse impacts.
The council appealed the decision to the the High Court where it was heard last month.
Lawyers for the the council argued that the planning inspector did not properly explain why she did not agree with the council’s argument that the development might not be in line with a development plan that was in progress.
However, in a ruling handed down yesterday, planning judge Mrs Justice Lang ruled that the planning inspector’s logic was sound, and refused the council’s appeal.
South Gloucestershire Council v Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government; Welbeck Strategic Land LLP
Planning Court (Lang J) 7 February 2019
