A High Court review has shut down the latest bid to push through 310 homes on green belt land.
Developer Redrow Homes Limited’s planning application for the Harts Farm site in Little Bushey Lane, Bushey, was rejected by Hertsmere Borough Council before an appeal was launched and dismissed last year.
Redrow, believing that the planning inspector for the appeal had made errors around flood risk rules, brought the case to the High Court of Justice’s planning court.
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On Monday morning (February 12), the judgement was handed down to the parties involved and concluded: “I have rejected all of the grounds of challenge raised by Mead and Redrow.
“Both claims for judicial review must be dismissed.”
The planning appeal will therefore not need to be redone by a different inspector.
The resident’s group Little Bushey Community opposed the proposals all the way. Its chairman Daren Nathan described the ruling as “seismic”.
He said that as well as being “an absolutely massive win in the battle to protect the green belt”, the decision was a “testament to the community” that had battled to prevent the development since 2018.
Mr Nathan hopes such a final ruling, after going through so many stages, would have a “knock-on effect” on future proposals, adding that the group do not oppose new housing but “we want them built in the right places”.
Hertsmere Borough Council had received 2,713 letters, emails and comments objecting to the initial plans for new homes on Harts Farm, Bushey. As well as 310 homes, the plan also included land reserved for a primary school, community facilities, and a network of streets.
Liberal Democrat Bushey Park councillor Maxie Allen said: “This outcome is testament to the thousands of residents who objected to the plan, and in particular the years of tireless campaigning by Little Bushey Community.
“Harts Farm is environmentally sensitive, and strategically crucial to Bushey’s greenbelt. It’s the wrong place to build - and Redrow must now accept that, once and for all”.
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