Appeals upheld over Northumberland caravan park and housing development

And in one case, relating to Acton Caravan Site, north of Felton, the planning inspector ordered that the council pay the applicant’s costs.

This application sought to get rid of a requirement for passing places along the narrow route leading to the holiday park, now known as Woodland Chase Luxury Glamping.

Members of the North Northumberland Local Area Council insisted they must be installed on the U3041, as they approved a scheme to upgrade the site in May 2018.

The road improvements remained a key element when an amended proposal was approved in February 2019, although councillors noted that the removal of touring caravans would improve the situation.

However, a month later, the applicant sought to remove the passing-places requirement, claiming that it fails to meet the tests for conditions set out in national planning law.

The council’s planning officer agreed, recommending that the condition be removed, but the committee did not share the same view and unanimously refused this bid last August.

An appeal was submitted in December and now inspector Alison Scott has concluded that removing the condition ‘would not result in unacceptable harm being caused to matters of highway safety or any other planning matter’.

Meanwhile, an appeal has been upheld after councillors unanimously rejected a retrospective bid to use concrete tiles instead of slate on a small development near Rennington.

Both the original application, approved in March 2017, and the subsequent discharge of conditions relating to four properties on land west of the former Mason’s Arms in Stamford referred to slate roof tiles, however, the bungalows have been built using concrete, slate-look tiles.

A 2019 variation bid sought to regularise this and was recommended for approval when it went before the local area council in October, but members all voted to refuse the application.

However, planning inspector M Cryan said that while they have ‘some sympathy with comments that the use of natural slates would have been more sympathetic to the appeal site’s surroundings’, they conclude that ‘ the variation of the disputed condition would not have a significantly detrimental effect on the character and appearance of the area’.

A message from the Editor:

Thank you for reading this story on our website. While I have your attention, I also have an important request to make of you.

In order for us to continue to provide high quality and trusted local news on this free-to-read site, I am asking you to also please purchase a copy of our newspaper.

Our journalists are highly trained and our content is independently regulated by IPSO to some of the most rigorous standards in the world. But being your eyes and ears comes at a price. So we need your support more than ever to buy our newspapers during this crisis.

With the coronavirus lockdown having a major impact on many of our local valued advertisers - and consequently the advertising that we receive - we are more reliant than ever on you helping us to provide you with news and information by buying a copy of our newspaper.

Thank you