Planning Permission was granted on appeal for these eight bungalows in Upper Caldecote, Bedfordshire.

The site was a large residential garden outside the Settlement Envelope.

A pre-application submission had confirmed that the principle of development was acceptable and Planning Officers recommended approval to the Development Management Committee.

However, the planning application was refused as the Council considered it was a cramped form of overdevelopment.  The refusal reason included reference to emerging Local Plan and Neighbourhood Plan policies which the Inspector considered had limited weight due to the fact that they were not yet adopted parts of the Development Plan.

The Planning Inspector concluded that the proposal would not represent a cramped development and would not have an adverse impact on the character and appearance of the surrounding area. The Inspector considered that the density of the proposed development was comparable to the surrounding area, which further highlighted the appropriate scale of the proposed development.

The appeal decision is available here.

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