Since Planning’s introduction in 1946, there has been a reluctance to approve new homes in the countryside.
The majority of national planning policy is strongly weighted against development in open countryside. For example, the network of designated green belts was established to prevent urban sprawl, limiting rural development to agricultural uses. It must also be noted some of the area Mr Bradford is trying to develop is also a Defra priority habitat Coastal and floodplain grazing marsh. To “develop” it is to lose it forever. To deny our children, our grandchildren the land which we know will be needed to keep people fed as the climate becomes more problematic.
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Mr Bradford proposes to construct this (and past) developments on land designated by Sedgemoor District Council (“SDC”) as “countryside”. That means that it does not fall within the settlement boundary of Bawdrip (in itself a Tier 4 settlement, meaning that development of this scale is not considered appropriate due to the limited facilities, such as public transport, shops, job creation, etc, available within those settlements). SDC’s Local Plan 2011 – 2032 (“Local Plan”) states: “unless special circumstances apply, isolated homes in the countryside will be resisted, in accordance with the National Planning Policy Framework (“NPPF”). For this reason no land supply for housing is identified in these areas”.
Important - The SHLAA (Strategic Housing Land Availability Assessment) is the document that assesses potential development sites in Sedgemoor. A positive SHLAA assessment is a good broad indicator of suitability, but more detailed assessment will still be needed particularly to include local knowledge and opinion. Map Here
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The map clearly shows that all of the 6.78 Hectares or 16.75 Acres (Site_ref : H364) has already been rejected as it is outside settlement boundaries and is a greenfield site.
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Sedgemoor Landscape Assessment and Countryside Design Summary states that -
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6.47 The visual prominence of the Polden Hills and the variety and richness of its landscape promotes it as a high
priority area for conservation. In particular, the western end of the hills and the southern hillocks have a high
value in terms of views from lowland areas.
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6.49 Capacity for new development is considered to be limited in all areas of the Polden Hills. Tree planting at
village edges would help to absorb modern housing developments into the surrounding landscape.
Similarly tree planting in the vicinity of modern agricultural buildings, perhaps as small copses, would be of
benefit. Such additional woodland should be of appropriate native species and would be of benefit not only
to landscape character but also to wildlife.
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It mandates that local planning authorities should avoid new isolated homes in the countryside unless there are ‘special circumstances’ such as the exceptional quality or innovative nature of the proposal. The field has never been built on as shown by this map from 1897.
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Without a clear set of plans with the designs of the proposed houses its would be difficult and even unfair to fully judge what is being proposed. However, just by looking at the indicative plans you can tell that the houses are just small generic ' Barratt' style brick boxes that would not be in keeping with the village or its countryside surroundings, nor in keeping with the remit of the landscape assessment, the countryside design summary or the open farmland landscape of the somerset levels, it shows a disconnect from the village center by trying to place it (the village hall) outside the village, jutting out unnaturally into farmland.
Although policy has changed slightly in recent years, at the moment it remains much the same, stating that planning policies and decisions should avoid the development of isolated homes in the countryside or on farmland. But new laws are being implemented, and changes to local policy are coming.
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Tom Fyans, campaigns and policy director of CPRE, the countryside charity, said:
‘The Planning Bill looks set to prioritise developers’ needs over local communities, provide no new environmental safeguards and could slow the delivery of genuinely affordable homes in many areas. All in all, it risks creating a free for all for development. We know from painful experience that without the right checks and balances in the planning process, developments can lead to a huge and unnecessary loss of countryside while doing nothing to tackle the affordable housing crisis or level up.
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On the plus side, We have a new Environment Bill entering parliament. We expect to see to access to Nature taking a central part in a green recovery from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Our open spaces are seeing a growing appreciation of the outdoors across our society and economy..
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We should have a opportunity in the future to build but still respect biological diversity and climate change, where we hope that Nature-based solutions to preserving open spaces and green field site rather than simply treating them as building plots. Sedgemoor as a responsible authority does have plans and policies in place that grow natural capital, build climate resilience and implement Nature-based solutions, these should be respected so that the next generation can enjoy and learn to respect our shared naturel environment too.
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It's important to emphasise when objecting to development such as this that the area is outside the village boundary and is in open countryside. Additionally, it is next to a sensitive wildflower nature reserve, and on a flood zone 3b any development would harm the nature reserve due to additional noise and light pollution, the UK has already lost 97% of wildflower meadows to date and almost half of UK wildlife is in long term decline and 15% of species are at risk of extinction. The sad truth is England's largest protected nature reserve is now represented by roadside verges.
Below is one of the reasons planning was refused on the same plot in 2014, the land has not changed, but maybe people have, they have a new and positive appreciation of nature and the open spaces, so, the planning precedent has already been set in 2014 in this site but will need repeating when necessary.
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Mapping from https://explorer.geowessex.com/
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