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Green light for Gloucestershire development

The green light has been given to allow the creation of 50 new family homes in a Gloucestershire village following a High Court ruling.

Tewkesbury Borough Council challenged a decision by a Government planning inspector to grant outline planning permission for 50 properties on land off Ashmead Drive in Gotherington, near Bishops Cleeve following a public inquiry into the scheme in 2020.

The Council maintained that as it had over-delivered against its housing requirement in previous years, this should count towards its future supply, therefore reducing current housing requirements.

But the High Court ruled in favour of L&Q Estates and this final judgement means work will now start in 2022 once the detailed reserved matters centred on landscaping and external appearances have been approved.

Richard Edwards, Group Planning Director at L&Q Estates, said he was pleased this two-year long case had been resolved in their favour.

“The High Court decided that it is a question of planning judgement for each individual inspector to decide how to approach the over-supply issue which means this legal case in Gotherington is finally over and the development can proceed,” he said.

“This was a niche planning argument but there is now a High Court decision for other developers and Local Authorities to refer to in similar situations since there is currently no Government policy.

“The 50 homes will include 40 per cent affordable housing which means more families from the locality will be able to buy a property in this lovely village since it will double the provision of affordable housing within Gotherington.

“The development will feature a multi-use games area, a children’s play area and a multi-purpose community area suitable for village events for Gotherington’s community. “We will also be helping towards financing the upgrade the bus stops as well as making a contribution to Gloucestershire County Council towards their budgets for education and libraries.

“We hope the families living in these additional 50 homes will enjoy being part of this village and benefit from the public open spaces and children’s and community areas. “There will also be wider advantages to the local economy during the construction phase which we expect to take two years to complete.”

Specialist planning barrister Killian Garvey from Kings Chambers led the case through the appeal process and in the High Court with expert evidence provided by Mark Sitch of Barton Willmore on planning matters and Ben Connolley of EDP on landscape issues.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Matt Joyce .