Agenda item

(Director of Planning and Economic Development) To consider the attached report.

The Committee considered an application referred by Area Plans South Sub-Committee on 8 January 2014 for the construction of a single dwelling house on land at Debden Lane, Loughton. The application had been referred with a recommendation that planning permission be refused.  The matter had been referred by minority reference to the District Development Control Committee for a final decision. 

The application sought the construction of a dwelling built partly underground with a flat roof glass box structure above ground level with associated parking/courtyard and bedrooms below ground.

Since the date of the subcommittee meeting an appeal decision has been issued in respect of an unrelated site where similar planning issues had arisen, District Council ref EPF/0457/12 at Coppice Farm, Coppice Row, Theydon Bois.  That proposal was for a modern designed house that would be partially underground, produce ‘low or no carbon’ and would achieve Code for Sustainable Homes Level 6.  The appeal decision in that case was to dismiss the appeal and given the similarity of issues it was a material consideration when assessing the merits of the Ripley Grange proposal.

It was noted that the applicants had also changed the extent of the proposed curtilage of the dwelling and had offered community access to part of the site and/or its transfer to either the Council or Davenant School. Further comments from Loughton Town Council were also noted.

The committee heard from an objector and the applicants agent at the meeting.

Members of the Committee expressed concern that in this proposal there existed no special circumstances sufficient to outweigh the harm caused to the green belt, that there was no lack of forest land for public enjoyment in the locality and that the building was proposed to be placed in a strategic land buffer between Theydon Bois and Loughton. Members were also concerned that the proposed new vehicle entrance onto a busy road would mean the loss of mature hedging. The members also considered that the recent decision was relevant in this case and refused the application accordingly.

Resolved:

That planning application EPF/2036/13 at Ripley Grange, Debden Lane, Loughton be refused for the following reasons:

(1)        The site is within the area identified in the Epping Forest District Local Plan as Metropolitan Green Belt.  The proposal constitutes inappropriate development and is harmful to the purposes of including land in the Green Belt contrary to the Government advice contained within the NPPF and Policy GB2A of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations. Furthermore, there are no very special circumstances that outweigh the harm of the proposal to the Metropolitan Green Belt.

(2)        The proposal leads to the creation of a new access onto Debden Road, which will result in a break in the continuous vegetation frontage and a result in a domestic intrusion to the detriment of the character of the existing streetscene, the Metropolitan Green Belt and the wider landscape.  The proposal is therefore contrary to the Government advice contained within the NPPF and policies DBE4, GB2A, GB7A and LL10 of the Adopted Local Plan and Alterations.