Date: 06/05/2008
High Peak Borough Council has won costs after a developer's conduct was judged unreasonable at a planning appeal.
A Planning Inspector has ordered the developer, S Balfe, of Nordorni Road, Chapel-en-le-Frith, to pay the Council's costs, after losing a planning appeal for residential development on a site on London Road, in Buxton.
Balfe will have to meet the Council's total cost of fighting the appeal.
The appellant argued that planning permission should have been granted for houses on open land, near the junction of Fern Road and London Road. He maintained that the land had been wrongly included within the countryside, in the High Peak Local Plan.
The Planning Inspector agreed with the Council that the policies of the Local Plan had been prepared after community involvement, and should be given full weight. To argue otherwise was unreasonable.
The Council will shortly be preparing a costs schedule and submitting that to Balfe.
Tony Kemp, Executive Councillor for Regeneration, said: "This case demonstrates that the Council has a clear plan for development within Buxton. Proposals, which accord with that plan, can expect to be approved, but we will fight vigorously any development that is contrary to it. Where a developer acts unreasonably at a planning appeal, we shall always seek to recover our costs."