http://www.kentonline.co.uk/dover/news/scheme-for-hundreds-of-homes-102453/
Plans to build more than 600 homes in a beauty spot have been stopped.
Two judges at the Court of Appeal have quashed the application for 521 homes and a 90-apartment retirement village at Farthingloe near Dover, an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.
Lord Justice Laws and Lord Justice Simon allowed the appeal against last December’s judicial review on the basis that Dover District Council’s planning committee failed to give legally adequate reasons for granting permission.
This had been contrary to an officers’ recommendation which had criticised the density, layout and design of the scheme.
Council planning officers recommended a reduction in the number of homes to 375 and changes to the density and design to protect the most sensitive part of the landscape.
This was ignored by both the developer, China Gateway, and the planning committee, says CPRE Kent, which had brought the case to court.
The group’s chairman Christine Drury said: “This is excellent news.”
In his judgment, Lord Justice Laws acknowledged that it was “an unusual case” and that “the scale of the proposed development is unprecedented in an AONB.”