NFP were engaged to apply for planning for a vineyard machinery store for an agricultural unit on the outskirts of Haywards Heath in West Sussex. What should have been a relatively straight forward prior notification application was complicated by the existence of an Article Four direction the client was unaware of, that suspended the permitted development rights on part of the agricultural unit.
After preparing the initial application, the Article Four direction was uncovered. This meant the permitted development rights had been suspended on the land parcel sometime in the 1960s. Unfortunately, this hadn’t been identified when the client had purchased the land.
After some discussion with the Local Planning Authority (LPA) over the choice of alternative locations and the benefits and challenges of each, it was agreed a full planning application would be the best route forward to achieve the desired result for the client, whilst satisfying the LPA.
An additional report on flood risk mitigation was the only requirement from the LPA on the full application as the planning statement covered the other aspects of the site in enough detail to satisfy the planning officer.
The hardstanding and turning area were included and, whilst there were no conditions on the build itself, the site has had some additional planting to really finish off the build well.
