Lowenna Fields

We were appointed to appeal against Cornwall Council’s decision to overrule planning officer advice and reject a proposal for 42 new homes in Mawnan Smith, on the south coast of Cornwall.

The village lies within an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB), and half of the homes had been designated as affordable.

Our team of planning experts prepared two appeal statements for the Planning Inspectorate, focusing on planning policy and the planning and landscape grounds of appeal.

The planning statement covered the pre-application community consultation which informed the detail of the scheme, the ‘exceptional circumstances’ which, we felt, made acceptable the development within an AONB, and the impact on neighbouring properties.

The landscape statement reviewed the impact of the proposed development on the landscape and assessed whether it would be better suited to a different site.

We acted for our clients at the one-day appeal hearing. The appeal was allowed by the inspector, who acknowledged that the benefits of granting permission for the sustainable development outweighed the limited harm it would cause.

This was a complex process requiring extensive knowledge of the planning policy  and experience in navigating the constraints of developments within an AONB.