Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, National Parks and Other Areas of Conservation or Protection
| Author | William Webster |
| Pages | 371-382 |
Chapter 19
Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, Sites of Special Scientific Interest, National Parks and Other Areas of Conservation or Protection
AREAS OF OUTSTANDING NATURAL BEAUTY
19.1 Natural England
19.2 Local planning authorities (LPAs) have the power to take such action as appears to them expedient for the accomplishment of the purpose of conserving and enhancing the natural beauty of the AONB.
19.3 The next issue concerns the impact of an AONB designation (where great weight is required to be given to conserving landscape and scenic beauty) in the context of national planning policy.
19.4 Paragraph 115 of the National Planning Policy Framework 2012 (NPPF) provides that:
Order 2013 (SI 2013/755)).
372 Planning Law: A Practitioner’s Handbook
Great weight should be given to conserving landscape and scenic beauty in National Parks, the Broads and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty, which have the highest status of protection in relation to landscape and scenic beauty …
19.5 The NPPF, paragraph 116 provides that:
planning permission should be refused for major developments in these designated areas except in exceptional circumstances and where it can be demonstrated they are in the public interest. Consideration of such applications include an assessment of:
♦ the need for the development, including in terms of any national considerations, and the impact of permitting it, or refusing it, upon the local economy;
♦ the cost of, and scope for, developing elsewhere outside the designated area, or meeting the need for it in some other way; and
♦ any detrimental effect on the environment, the landscape and recreational opportunities, and the extent to which that could be moderated.
19.6 If only a small part of the proposed site for development lies within an AONB it will not trigger paragraph 116.
19.7 In R (Aston) v Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government,
Wyn Williams J determined that the meaning of the phrase ‘major developments’ in paragraph 116 of the NPPF:
22. In DCS Number: 400-013-431, plans for 20 homes in the Cornwall AONB were refused as major development, despite a need for local homes. In DCS Number 200-005-666, an inspector accepted that plans to redevelop a derelict factory site in a National Park village with 26 homes fell within the definition of major development in the Town and Country Planning (Development Management Procedure) (England) Order 2010 (SI 2010/2184). However, he held that the resulting improvement in the village’s appearance meant that the scheme passed the exceptional circumstances test allowed for in national policy. In DCS Number 200-006-471 (2017), 32 dwellings, retaining walls and associated infrastructure were allowed on a sloping site in an AONB adjoining a settlement in Devon, despite harm to the AONB. It was a case where the LPA could only show a two-year supply of housing land. The inspector considered that as the site adjoined a settlement, was enclosed on all sides and its topography severely restricted views into and out of the site, as did high banks and mature vegetation, the proposal would have limited visual impact, confined to just the site itself, which would not intrude into the rural landscape or setting of the settlement. The inspector also held that the development did not constitute major development in an AONB, and so para 116 was not engaged. Irrespective of the presumption against major development in AONB’s development, the ‘tilted balance’ may yet favour development where housing land supply is less than five years and where the development is liable to cause only minor harm to the character and appearance of the area.
Areas of Conservation or Protection 373
… was that which would be understood from the normal usage of those words. Given the normal meaning to be given to the phrase the Inspector was entitled to conclude that the Third Defendant’s application to erect 14 dwelling-houses on the appeal site did not constitute an application for major development.
19.8 It is, then, a matter of planning judgment in any particular case whether development falls within paragraph 116 of the NPPF.
19.9 Where a proposal involved housing development, paragraph 116 had to be read together with the policies for housing need and supply in paragraph 47 and paragraph 48. The decision-maker had to consider whether there were exceptional circumstances justifying planning permission. While that might involve considering the availability of alternative sites, paragraph 116 did not prescribe an assessment process and did not direct a decision-maker to consider sites across the whole of an LPA’s area.
SITES OF SPECIAL SCIENTIFIC INTEREST
19.10 A designation under this head arises when Natural England notifies the site as a Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI),
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