Bolney residents succeed at planning appeal

Three local residents in Bolney, Mid Sussex, supported by CPRE Sussex, have scored a notable success at a newly determined planning appeal.

The residents appeared as interested parties to provide important factual information.

The issue at stake involved the unlawful use of land just off the A23, but within the High Weald National Landscape for the mixed purposes of storage of building materials and for recycling of building waste on a pretty large scale.  The company involved was PJ Brown, whose large yellow lorries will be a familiar sight to those of you who use the M23/A23 and surrounding roads on a regular basis.

Technically the appeal case revolved around the validity of an enforcement notice issued by Mid Sussex District Council and whether there had been the alleged continuous illegal mixed use of the site for longer than 10 years.

The appeal also considered whether it would be appropriate to grant planning permission for the current uses on the site in the event that the enforcement notice was held to be valid.  This involved consideration by the planning inspector of the Mid Sussex District Plan High Weald Development policy that gives effect to National Planning Policy Framework para 190, and the West Sussex Waste Plan policies on the adequacy of the long term availability of waste recycling facilities (i.e. whether there was a need for this use at this site to continue).

The first success of the residents was in persuading Mid Sussex District Council to take enforcement action, and to give welly to effectively challenging PJ Brown’s appeal, which in fairness the Council has done in this instance.

The main success was the Planning Inspector’s conclusion that the appeal against the enforcement notice should be dismissed, and that planning permission for the ongoing use of the site for construction waste storage and waste recycling should be refused.  Site usage will have to cease and the land restored to agricultural use within nine months.

The Planning Inspector’s appeal decision is below.  The first 100+ paragraphs deal with the validity of Mid Sussex District Council’s enforcement notice and are largely technical and fact-specific.  The only bits of that aspect of the decision of wider interest may be paras 20 – 24, which explain usefully and lucidly how enforcement periods operate and may, in some circumstances, be extended.

More meaningful in a wider context are

–       the well expressed reasons at paras 110 – 126 considering why the usage must be treated as major development for the purposes of NPPF para 190 (development in designated landscapes) and why it would be  incompatible with the exceptional circumstances exceptions to the para 190 “rule” that manor development should be refused for major development within a national landscape, and
–        the Planning Inspector’s consideration at paras 144 – 161 of how West Sussex County Council’s waste plan policies on ensuring continued availability of construction waste recycling facilities operates in a world where the level of new development is planned to increase in the years ahead.

I commend these specific paragraphs (20 – 24, 110  – 126 and 144 – 161) as useful reading by those interested in the issues involved.

I also applaud the three local residents whose tenacity led to this result.   The waste recycling operations, in particular, have become a serious disturbance to the peaceful enjoyment of their rural homes.

Michael Brown                                                                                                                                                                                                  CPRE Sussex

Read: 3319435 Appeal Decision