Planning permission secured on appeal for 45 new homes

Planning permission secured on appeal for 45 new homes and a commercial use on the former Howard Kent Removals site at Shoreham Harbour. Lewis & Co Planning represented our client, Cayuga Homes, in an appeal hearing over two days in November and have now secured permission on this site for its redevelopment as part of the wider Western Harbour Arm regeneration project.

Alongside new homes and a riverside commercial space, the development includes the delivery of key aspirations within the Shoreham Harbour Joint Area Action Plan, including a new public riverside walk connecting the town centre to Kingston Beach Village Green, the completion of improved flood defences for Shoreham-by-Sea along with River Adur, the delivery of a new two-way cycle lane and widened pedestrian route along the A259 and over £575,000 in funding towards new health, education, public transport and open space improvements at Kingston Beach.

Despite constructive engagement with Council officers and a recommendation to approve planning permission at Committee, planning permission was refused by the Committee in March this year.  The Appeal Inspector concluded that Planning Committee Members had “failed to fully grasp the need to balance competing issues in a rational and logical way” in reaching their decision, and granted a full award of costs against the Council on the basis that their decision to refuse planning permission amounted to unreasonable behaviour. The Inspector noted that Committee Members who were responsible for the decision declined to appear at the hearing to defend their decision and she was left “with little confidence that their decision had taken full account of all the important issues in this case, particularly bearing in mind the site’s allocation for development and its role in delivery a range of other public benefits”.

Great team work.

Client: Cayuga Homes

Architect: LRA-R Architects

Legal: Harriet Townsend (Cornerstone Barristers) & Justin Thompson (Thompson Allen LLP)

Transport: Reeves Transport Planning

Engineering Consultancy: HOP Consulting