LOCAL PLAN POLICY UPHELD ON APPEAL

A Planning Inspector, appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, has turned down an Appeal to overturn Exmoor National Park Authority’s decision to refuse planning permission for the ‘conversion of the ground floor a shop for open market occupation’.

The property, which is in Porlock, already had planning permission for conversion of the first floor into two flats that had been granted before the planning policy concerning local housing needs was in force. Under the policy in the Local Plan adopted in 2005, new build housing and conversions on Exmoor must be for people in local housing need. The policy has an exception for the larger settlements for the conversion of buildings where “in the case of the creation of more than one dwelling from a single previous planning unit (whether at once or over a period of time) the development contributes not less than 50% of the dwellings towards meeting local housing needs..” In his Appeal Decision the Inspector stated that “for the purposes of this Policy, the premises should be regarded as a single planning unit.”

Commenting on the Decision, David Wyborn, head of planning at Exmoor National Park Authority, said: “This is the first Appeal of this nature since the Local Plan was adopted and we are delighted that the Inspector has upheld our original decision not to allow the flat become an open market property. This increases the potential of this buiding to house someone who is local and in housing need.”