Rural dwellings will be built near border of Shropshire and Powys after appeal win

Applicants C & E Evans & Evans saw their proposal for two three-bedroomed affordable rural needs properties in Winnington refused by Shropshire Council in January this year, after the planning authority decided the proposed site was in open countryside.

Council planners rejected the applicant’s submission that the location was within the “dispersed linear settlement” of Winnington, near Halfway House, despite submissions from local councillors.

“Although the Parish Council and Local Member consider the site to fall within what they consider the dispersed linear development of Winnington, it is considered that the development would fall outside of the two built clusters of development which form the named settlement of Winnington,” the original planning report said.

Council planning policy aims to focus rural developments within so-called 'Community Hubs and Community Clusters', and policy is weighted against development in land which is deemed open countryside.

With no formal development boundary in place, council planners decided Winnington was formed of two specific groups of houses – but planning inspector RJ Redford agreed with the applicant’s wider definition of the area’s settlement boundary, which includes the development site.

“There is no obvious village centre or any traditionally expected features such as a church or village hall,” read the inspector’s report.

“However, due to the dispersed nature of development through this part of Shropshire, settlements may not necessarily take the form of a traditional village or town and may include a collection of dwellings or small hamlets.

“The high incorporation of farms, although appreciably have dwellings attached, within the main parties’ descriptions of Winnington, in my mind artificially widens the scope of the settlement away from the unnamed road.”

The original decision was overturned and planning permission granted. A separate application for costs was refused.