BCP Council (Bournemouth):  Matt Annen, a director of the firm has recently secured full planning permission for a revised 19-unit residential redevelopment over two blocks in Bournemouth. The scheme was designed by ARC Architecture for mutual client AJ Developments. This application follows an allowed outline appeal which Pure Town Planning secured for an essentially identical scheme (as we reported back in October last year)

That allowed appeal was in ‘Outline form’ and so required a ‘Reserved Matters’ consent to facilitate a full permission. However instead of submitting a ‘Reserved Matters’, Pure Town Planning, advised that it would be worthwhile submitting a ‘Full’ application (the fee to the Council is the same) but this time challenge the affordable housing contribution that had been applied to the Outline consent. With the assistance of Simon Corp of S106 Affordable housing, PTP submitted viability information which was independently assessed by the District Valuation Service who concluded that the development was not viable to provide a contribution for affordable housing. This resulted in the removal of the previous £300,000 affordable housing contribution and thus represented a significant saving for our clients.

Considering that the Council refused the previous scheme and then unsuccessfully tried to defend their decision at appeal, the appointed officer was in an uncomfortable position. Clearly they originally felt the scheme was unacceptable but because the Inspectorate allowed essentially the same scheme this constituted a strong material fallback position which the officer had to give significant weight to, as confirmed in his report: “whilst the Council may not be in full agreement, if the Council were to refuse consent on grounds the Inspectorate had previously found to be acceptable, the Council would likely be liable for an award of costs should a refusal of consent be appealed”.

If you have a consent that you would like to modify or improve why not contact Pure Town Planning for to discuss the best way to achieve it.