Issue - meetings

Refused, as per Officer recommendation, for the following reasons:-

(1)  The retrospective development considered in this application amounts to inappropriate development in the Green Belt. This causes harm by definition, harm to openness and is contrary to the purposes of including land in the Green Belt. It is not considered that any very special circumstances have been put forward in support of the proposals to outweigh this harm clearly and decisively. Therefore, Very Special Circumstances do not exist that would need to be demonstrated in accordance with the NPPF and Policy P17 of the Solihull Local Plan if the presumption against inappropriate development in the Green Belt is to be overcome. The proposed development is therefore contrary to the NPPF and to Policy P17 of the Solihull Local Plan;

(2)  The retrospective development considered in this application is contrary to Policy P15 of the Solihull Local Plan regarding its scale, expanse and appearance, resulting in harm to the character and appearance of this rural landscape and surrounding area;

(3)  It has not been demonstrated that the retrospective development considered in this application for the existing yard and building for waste recycling and ancillary skip hire occupied by C&R Lewis – part of Dovetail Group complies with Policy P12 of the Solihull Local Plan (SLP) and is not identified on the proposals map in the SLP which deals strategically important waste management sites that are supported in principle; and

(4)  Policy P3 of the Solihull Local Plan seeks to encourage the creation of new small and medium sized enterprises subject to various criteria, including that the business must be appropriate in form, use and scale to the character of the particular location, and when located in the Green Belt proposals must be consistent with Green Belt Policy. The proposal is harmful to the character and appearance of the area and represents inappropriate development that is harmful to the openness of the Green Belt and the purposes of including land within it. As such the proposal fails to accord with the provisions of Policy P3 of the Solihull Local Plan 2013.

A statement of objection was read out on behalf of Mrs Joan Bylinski and concerned residents of Eastcote Lane, Councillor Bob Sleigh also spoke against the application whilst Mr Richard Cobb spoke in support.