Has anyone got around the Openness issue in Green Belt?

[Bramco]

10 minutes ago, Johnnyt said:

I won appeal for infill in GB where impact on openness was reason for refusal, APP/A0665/W/18/3198387

 

Congratulations!!!   It's pretty galling that these planning officers don't really know the rules and cause a huge amount of stress for applicants. Even though there's the NPPF and supposedly planning laws, we heard time and again that every application is decided on it's own merits, in other words it's completely up to the planning officers discretion, knowledge or bloody mindedness.

 

Our bloody minded pre-app officer deemed the 'gap' to be too big for infill at 32m - exactly half the plot with a wide bungalow on the other side. She then approved another application with a 100m frontage!!!   Difference - one application was from an individual, the other from a local architect.  As my wife said about the pre-app advice, it's like those kids I used to teach when they answered an exam question they didn't really know the answer to - they wrote down everything they knew about the subject but failed because they hadn't a clue. 

 

That pre-app advice meant the application was refused (at committee by the casting vote of the chairman - twice!!) but we won at appeal. 3 years later we're about to start the build. If she'd done her job properly, we'd have been in the house for a couple of years without the prospective hassle of shortages of materials, additional costs because of Brexit etc. etc.

 

Grrrrrrrrrrr

 

Simon