“Possible visual impacts and potential for impact on highways, ecology, flood risk, drainage and archaeology, but would be a localised impact and therefore probability of impact is not considered substantial.”
“It is considered in the light of available information that the proposal would not have a significant impact and as a result an EIA is not required.”
“The loss of this site to development is therefore not significant to the supply of BMV agricultural land within the district and the Southeast as a whole with development on some BMV land in Aylesbury Vale being inevitable in most cases.”
“In considering the overall planning balance it is considered that the adverse impacts would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits of the proposal. It is therefore recommended that the application be approved subject to the completion of a s.106 legal agreement securing the matters outlined in section 6 below and subject to conditions as appropriate.”
“the site is proposed to be allocated in the emerging VALP for development as part of MMO006 and this supports the development of the site for 170 dwellings subject to a number of criteria. MMO006 (as proposed to be modified) anticipated delivery of the following: a provision of at least 170 dwellings at a density that takes account of the adjacent settlement character and identity and the edge of countryside location.”
“The officer recommendation is that the application be Deferred and Delegated to officers for approval subject to the satisfactory completion of a s.106 agreement to secure the requirements set out in the report, subject to securing a District Licence to address protected species and subject to any conditions considered appropriate or refuse if a satisfactory S106 agreement cannot be completed for such reasons as officers considers appropriate.”
“241…having examined the matter at considerable length and in considerable detail, I am convinced that, given the difficult decisions which the Council has had to face in determining Buckingham’s future and taking all matters together in the round, this allocation is positively prepared and justified, although a modification is necessary [MM101] to make the allocation effective and consistent with government policy by reflecting the contribution which the allocation will need to make to the resolution of Buckingham’s highway deficiencies, updating the site’s expected time of delivery and to make it clear, in line with government policy, that the expected number of dwellings should be viewed as a minimum.”
“63. Since the weight and significance to be attached to the VALP was a matter of some significance in the [officer’s report] and the [committee] meeting, for the resolution to proceed to the issue of permission without further consideration of the above would open it to a serious risk of challenge on Kides principles unless it is reported back to [committee]. 64. Whether the application should be fully reported back to members for reconsideration in the near future, or on a briefer basis with a view to taking the matter back once the Inspector has heard and reported on the [site] objections is a matter for the Council to decide having regard to the current circumstances and the changes that have occurred since the meeting.”
“It is Mr Elvin’s view, accepted by the Council, that this amounts to a material change in circumstances and which will now require at least some of the matters considered by the Committee to be considered further. That is not in any way to suggest that there was anything wrong with the original decision of the Committee, rather that the Inspector’s further intervention since that decision warrants reconsideration. In the circumstances, it has been decided that a final decision on this application, will be deferred until the position of the VALP inspector is known. At the moment it is anticipated that a hearing to consider further representations about this site will take place in March/April and so we do not expect any referral back before that date. If there is any significant delay to this anticipated timetable this position may need to be revisited.”
“[A]ll members of the Strategic Sites Committee have received an explanation regarding the decision to refer the application back to committee.”
“…at the time the planning application was reported to Committee on19th November 2020 , Policy D-MMO006 was worded as set out in full at paragraph 5.5 of the officer’s report. The wording included the main and additional modifications as proposed at that time. The Inspector in his final report concluded that these modifications to the policy were required as set out in his Main Modification 101. The VALP Inspector found the allocation to be sound and the site is allocated in the adopted VALP for development as part of MMO006 and this supports the development of the site for at least 170 dwellings subject to a number of criteria as set out in that policy.”
“The quantum of the development proposed remains up to 170 dwellings, however it is acknowledged that the number of dwellings could be less than previously indicated given that there is a reduction in the developed area to achieve the required biodiversity net gain as shown on the amended landscape masterplan and feasibility plan. This would still be consistent with the description of development for which outline permission is sought and considered by committee. Regard has been had to the mitigation indicated, the impact on the landscape character area, on the settlement character and the visual impact of the development itself whilst recognising this is an outline application and the details of appearance, landscaping, layout and scale are matters reserved for subsequent approval.”
“[I]t is clear from the above that the proposals and advice put forward by the Council for both the planning application and during the VALP hearings result in the same conclusions that the Inspector reached in his report. It is the case that the development is likely to result in additional traffic using Mill Lane, there are measures in place in the form of traffic calming that aim to dissuade traffic from using the road and at the same time will allow the traffic that does want to use the road to be accommodated and facilitated in a safer manner, and ultimately, if there are capacity issues at the Mill Lane junction with the A422 junction there is a scheme agreed to mitigate those issues. It is also important to confirm that the assessments carried out as part of the TA [transport assessment] submitted in support of the application did assume that additional development traffic will use Mill Lane and none of assessments relied upon any traffic being reassigned away from using Mill Lane and instead routing through Buckingham for the application to be acceptable; traffic uses both routes. Having regard to the above it is not considered that inconsistent highways advice has been given in respect of Mill Lane (also known as College Farm Road) and that the representations made do not raise any new material considerations on highways grounds to require the application to be returned to committee.”
“5.1. For these reasons the position remains as advised to members at Committee and as resolved upon by members. The additional representations made, and consultation responses received, since the application was considered by Committee do not give rise to any material change in circumstances and certainly none that might make a difference to the committee’s conclusion that permission should be granted. 5.2. It is not considered necessary to refer this matter back to committee as there is no new material consideration that has arisen after the resolution to grant, which could affect or change the resolution reached by the Committee. It is concluded that were the application referred back to Committee the decision would be the same.”
“When a grant of planning permission is challenged on the ground that the local planning authority, having resolved to approve the development proposed, ought to reconsider that decision, the court will have to consider whether the new factor relied upon in the challenge would have been capable of affecting the outcome. What is required therefore is not merely some obvious change in circumstances but a change that might have had a material effect on the authority’s deliberations had it occurred before the decision was made. The crucial question for the court to consider is whether the new factor might have led the authority to reach a different decision.”
“41…The court will look for the members’ intention as it appears from the words of the resolution. To grasp the meaning and effect of a committee’s resolution to grant planning permission, one must read it in a straightforward way, keeping in mind the relevant context. Part of the context may be an officer's report recommending the grant of planning permission, and it can generally be assumed that if the members have accepted such a recommendation they will have done so following the officer’s advice.”
“102. There has to be a sensible limit to what a screening decision-maker is expected to do…Conjecture about future development on other sites that might or might not act with the development in question to produce indirect, secondary or cumulative effects is not in the screening decision-maker's remit. I do not think the precautionary approach extends to that. And when it is suggested in a claim for judicial review that a screening decision was deficient because some potential cumulative effect was left out, it is not enough for a claimant simply to point to other developments in the locality that have been or might be approved, and to leave it to the court to work out whether any aggregate effects were unlikely to be significant. Unless it is obvious that relevant and potentially significant effects on the environment have been overlooked, the court will need some objective evidence to show this was so. It will need to be satisfied that the authority responsible for the screening decision was aware, or ought to have been, of the potential cumulative effects; that the screening opinion could not reasonably have been negative if those potential effects had been considered; and that this was, or should have been, apparent to the authority at the time.”
“82…the grant will still be lawful and not in breach of Reg.3, if no reasonable planning officer, having reached the screening opinion that it did, would have thought that the changes could make the development EIA development, that is one likely to have significant environmental effects. If a reasonable planning officer could have so concluded, the grant of permission will be unlawful. What would be tested is not the rationality of a conclusion or planning judgment by the officer, because there is none, but the lawfulness of the grant, in the absence of a conclusion that it was not EIA development.”
“171. Planning policies and decisions should contribute to and enhance the natural and local environment by… (b) recognising the intrinsic character and beauty of the countryside, and the wider benefits from natural capital and ecosystem services – including the economic and other benefits of the best and most versatile agricultural land... 171. Plans should: distinguish between the hierarchy of international, national and locally designated sites; allocate land with the least environmental or amenity value, where consistent with other policies in this Framework…”
“Where significant development of agricultural land is demonstrated to be necessary, areas of poorer quality land should be preferred to those of a higher quality.”