Planning applications opposed

CPRE Worcestershire campaigns to protect the distinctive landscape of our beautiful county.

This has come under increasing threat from speculative development, building large estates of anywhere houses on the edge of our country villages. These place a strain on local services and significantly increase traffic along country lanes. They also mean that villages lose their distinctive character and become part of an undifferentiated suburban sprawl.

CPRE has objected to many such planning applications, and they have often been refused permission by district councils only to be approved by planning inspectors on appeal. There has, however, recently been one important case where an appeal failed. CPRE, together with the parish council, the District Council and many local people, opposed an application to build an estate of 80 houses on the edge of the village of Martley. The inevitable appeal followed, but the planning inspector found that the estate, if built, would have had a very damaging impact on the rolling countryside to the East of the village. Details of the application and reasons for refusal can be seen on: https://plan.malvernhills.gov.uk/Planning/Display/M/24/01236/OUT.

Another important case has been a planning application for a ‘solar farm’ on five fields covering 129 hectares in Newlands Parish on both sides of the road from Malvern Link to Worcester. This was opposed by the Malvern Hills Trust, the Malvern Hills National Landscape Team and a great many local people, all of whom believed that a solar power installation of this size and location would be detrimental to the views of and from the Hills. The application was refused by the District Council but may yet go to appeal. CPRE believes that solar power arrays are best placed on roofs and over car parks, avoiding the need to blight the countryside with industrial plant and lose land that should be used for food production. Details of the application and reasons for refusal can be seen on https://plan.malvernhills.gov.uk/Planning/Display/M/24/01781/FUL.