The Conservative chair of a planning committee has defended the panel’s decision to allow a Tory colleague to build a new home in open countryside that conflicts with planning policy.
Conservative members on North Yorkshire Council’s Richmond area planning committee voted to be ‘minded to grant’ an application submitted by Councillor Angus Thompson.
The councillor had submitted an application for a new self-build three-bedroom house on land at High Bank Farm, in Stapleton, south of Darlington.
The Conservative councillor is usually a member of the committee that gave the go-ahead, but was not allowed to take part in the discussion on Friday due to transparency rules.
Officers had recommended that the application be rejected as it did not comply with policy.
Their report said the plans constituted “unjustified new residential development in the open countryside” and were therefore “unacceptable in principle”.
It added that the property would have an “intrusive appearance within the open countryside” and “would fail to respect local character or integrate with its surroundings”.
A decision was previously deferred for further talks with the applicant.
Revised documents were submitted to support the application, including landscaping plans.
Chair of the committee, Councillor David Webster, said members had also made a site visit.
Outlining his support for the application, he said: “On the site visit on Monday, it was demonstrated clearly to me that the application site abuts the nursery lawn, which is part of the village.
“I know that the nursery was, or at least I’ve been told that the nursery was, created because of a farm diversification scheme.
“Nevertheless, it would have to conform to planning policies, so I can’t see that this is an isolated development at all.”
Councillor Tom Jones also supported the plans.
He said: “I broadly support the proposal. I think the inclusion of the trees mitigates enough the damage to the open countryside.
“I think the closeness to the steading means it’s not an isolated home.”
Councillor Yvonne Peacock said the site was a “farm complex” and nine planning applications had previously been approved on the site.
She added: “It is not in the open countryside — the whole of North Yorkshire seems to be in the open countryside — to me it’s very close to the village.”
Councillors also noted that Stapleton Parish Council had not objected to the plans and that the authority was unable to demonstrate a five-year land supply for new housing, which tips the scales further in favour of developments being approved.
All Conservative members voted in support of the ‘minded to defer’ motion, with the application set to be approved once various conditions have been agreed.
The only councillor to oppose the application was the Green Party member Kevin Foster, who said he agreed with the officers’ report and believed the application should be rejected.
Council rules stipulate that applications by elected members must be decided by committee rather than officers to ensure transparency.
Cllr Foster said the application would have been rejected had it been dealt with under delegated powers by officers.
At the start of the meeting, all councillors read out a statement acknowledging that Cllr Thompson was a member of the planning committee and stating that they had an open mind and would consider the application on its planning merits
Speaking after the meeting, Cllr Webster defended the decision to support the application.
The councillor rejected the suggestion — made by the Local Democracy Reporting Service — that the application was approved due to the relationship between members and the applicant, saying that was “absolutely not” the case.
He added: “The main reason why the recommendations were for refusal was because it was in the open countryside, but it abuts already developed land.
“We’ve been twice to see it, to make sure that everybody understands what the situation is. That’s the difference of the committee.”
Cllr David Webster.
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