Green Belt sites require a careful and balanced assessment of landscape, townscape and visual matters, with particular regard to openness, landscape character, settlement separation, the setting of urban areas and the contribution that land makes to Green Belt purposes. This experience includes a range of projects where Landscape and Visual Appraisal, Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment, Green Belt analysis and expert witness work have informed the planning balance for development in sensitive Green Belt locations.
Relevant projects include the Felix Hotel, Cambridge, where the proposal involved the redevelopment of an existing hotel site to provide a new care home within a sensitive Green Belt location between Girton and Cambridge. The Landscape and Visual Appraisal considered the role of the site in maintaining the sense of openness and green character within the gap between the settlements, and demonstrated that the proposed design would preserve these qualities. The scheme was subsequently approved at appeal, with landscape and visual evidence presented in support of the proposal.
Further Green Belt experience includes the expansion of Babraham Campus, Cambridge, where the assessment considered the relationship between new development, the established campus context and the Green Belt, including emerging considerations associated with the definition of Grey Belt. Expert witness experience includes work for Buckinghamshire Council in relation to the National Society for Epilepsy proposal at Chalfont St Peter, for mixed-use development, including up to 975 homes, on Green Belt land adjacent to the Chilterns National Landscape. Although the appeal was allowed, the Inspector and Minister of State for Housing agreed with the landscape evidence regarding harm to Green Belt openness and the character of the landscape.
Additional hearing experience includes support for a private client at Stampwell Farm, Buckinghamshire, in relation to proposals for church and community facilities. In that case, the landscape and visual evidence helped demonstrate that the site could be regarded as Grey Belt, with the Inspector accepting that position. Across these projects, the assessment work has focused on the nuanced relationship between Green Belt policy, landscape character, visual openness and the ability of sites to accommodate change without undermining their wider spatial and landscape function.