Bedford Borough Council’s planning enforcement and appeals team has exceeded government performance benchmarks, despite a rising workload and delays from the national Planning Inspectorate, a meeting heard.
Monday night’s Planning Committee (April 28) heard that the team had secured a 73 percent dismissal rate for planning appeals over the past year.
The council’s manager for heritage and planning compliance, Ian Johnson, said this was “well above” the 60 percent target set by the government.
In the latest quarter, 18 out of 25 appeals were dismissed (72 percent).
Mr Johnson said: “An appeal was allowed at Keysoe International Equestrian Centre relating to an all-weather arena.
“The inspector concluded that the development does not cause harm to the character and appearance of the surrounding area or harm to the living conditions of occupiers of the neighbouring property.
“In January, we received the decision relating to a site for the storage and service of commercial vehicles on land at Bedford Road, Roxton.
“That appeal was dismissed as the inspector agreed with the council that the proposal would result in harm to the character and appearance of the area.”
He added that the council was successful with two appeal hearings in February.
One was for outline permission for an agricultural workers’ dwelling at Hill Farm, Riseley, and the other was for a 10-house scheme at Dove House Farm, Wyboston.
“The Hill Farm case was refused on the basis that the new dwelling in the open countryside could not be justified as the agricultural enterprise had not been shown to be viable,” Mr Johnson said.
“The Dove House Farm case was refused for flooding reasons and harm to the character of the area.
“The council, however, lost an appeal on land at Bromham Road, Biddenham for 57 dwellings.
“The inspector concluded that the benefits of the scheme outweigh the adverse impacts relating to under provision of on-site informal and amenity green space,” he added.
The committee was also told there were 78 new enforcement cases lodged and investigated over the last quarter, with 60 cases being closed.
Mr Johnson said: “The team’s resources had to be diverted to address the volume of appeal work.
“We are also being delayed by the number of appeals against enforcement notices and lawful development certificates, which are sitting with the Planning Inspectorate and account for 13 cases.”
A report to the committee said the new complaints typically relate to unauthorised business uses, use of properties as Houses of Multiple Occupation (HMOs), extensions and alterations without permission, development not in accordance with approved plans and car sales or storage.
It added a prosecution hearing was due to take place at Luton Magistrates Court on March 14 for failure to comply with a Breach of Condition Notice at 1-13 Greyfriars, Bedford.
The owner had “failed to discharge a condition relating to noise mitigation measures” and their recent application to remove the condition had been refused.
Unfortunately, the report continued, due to matters “beyond the council’s control”, the court has delayed the hearing until September, with a final hearing date yet to be fixed.
By John Guinn
Local Democracy Reporter
