Mid Devon Planners have welcomed an appeal decision, following a lengthy and costly planning determination, regarding development at Hartnoll Farm near Tiverton.

The appeal, lodged by Waddeton Park Ltd, sought to overturn the refusal decision made by the Council for the proposal, which included a 3.9 hectare extension to the existing business park and up to 150 homes.

The application was originally considered by the Council’s Planning Committee on 18 January 2023, when planning permission was refused. A public inquiry was then held in September 2023 and the Planning Inspector issued their decision in October 2023, which was to uphold the Council’s original planning decision.

However, despite the decision the applicant then challenged the Inspector’s decision through the High Court and as a result the court ordered the appeal to be re determined with a further public inquiry, which ran from 26 November to 6 December 2024. In determining this appeal, the new Inspector has again found in favour of the Council and dismissed the appeal.

Councillor Steven Keable, Cabinet Member for Planning and Economic Regeneration said:

“The Planning Inspector has made a clear rebuttal of the second planning appeal to the Hartnoll Farm application, based upon the robust planning policies of the Council. I would like to thank Mid Devon’s planning team who have worked tirelessly and diligently on this application, and the subsequent appeals, to defend the Council’s position. It is an unfortunate feature of the planning system that the significant cost of defending these appeals falls to the local tax payer, but this decision is great news to the many local voices of opposition to this proposal.”

You can read the full determination here.