Damning legal advice sees council withdraw from inquiry and remove planning refusal reasons

The planning inquiry, which was triggered when developer Taylor Wimpey appealed the planning refusal, will go ahead without the council's involvement.

Taylor Wimpey applied for planning permission in March 2023 to build the homes on a 12 hectares site which is an allocated housing site within the council's local plan. 

However, councillors on the local authority's Regulatory Committee later refused planning permission.

Their decision went against the recommendations of a planning officer's report, which concluded the development's layout, scale, mix and appearance were considered to be acceptable and the principle of residential development on the site was "one that is accepted".

The report recommended permission be granted subject to conditions relating to traffic, drainage and flooding.

Councillors claimed there were four areas in which the development conflicted with the council's local plan.

These four reasons were:

1. The proposed development, due to the access along a neighbouring residential estate known as Silverdale Gardens, would be detrimental in terms of highways safety and would have an adverse impact on residential amenity.
2. The proposed development, due to the numbers proposed and the location, would be overdevelopment of an existing green space.
3. The council is well in excess of the housing requirements and the development is not needed.
4. The development of the site would result in a loss of biodiversity and nature conservation which would have a detrimental impact on the area.

The developer then appealed the decision to the planning inspectorate.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS), the council’s leader received advice from a barrister, who suggested that the developers would likely be successful in appealing the refusal.

The advice stated the proposed access accorded with existing council policy and there was a high likelihood of costs being awarded against the council, which could be up to £500,000.

The barrister also described the council's chances of success in the appeal as "vanishingly small", said that the appeal was "indefensible", and noted that a costs application would likely be successful.

Following this, the council's governance director and monitoring officer, Steve Newton, wrote to the Planning Inspector to announce that Redcar and Cleveland would withdraw their reasons for refusal and would not participate in the planning inquiry.

His letter said the decision came after "careful consideration of the grounds of appeal and, having undertaken relevant consultation".

Newton also noted that the developer had agreed not to seek an order for costs against the council at the inquiry.

The council will still facilitate the holding of the inquiry starting on 8 October 2024 “and will comply with the directions contained in the start letter, save for the filing of a statement of case and proofs of evidence," the letter added.

While Redcar and Cleveland will not be contesting the appeal, the Silverdale Residents' Association is set to challenge the developer at the inquiry on grounds claiming infrastructure inadequacies, harm to the residential amenity, over-development of the area, excess of housing requirements, and loss of biodiversity and nature conservation.

Adam Carey