Upper Northend House, Northend, Batheaston.
Installation of domestic solar array, connecting cable to existing outbuilding and landscaping.
The proposal site is within the indicative setting of the World Heritage Site, the Bristol and Bath Green Belt, and Cotswold National Landscape. Upper Northend House is listed at Grade II.
The “historic stone byre” (Heritage, Landscape and Design and Access Statement, p.6) (the D&A) may be curtilage listed.
Ramscombe Lane is to the west of the site and the highway known as Northend is to the east. A public footpath runs east/west to the south of the application site.
The application is for 40 (2187mm x 1102mm) (96m2) solar panels and the associated infrastructure will be installed in “the Byre” (para. 1.1, Planning Statement (the PS). The array is to be screened by existing and proposed planting as depicted in drawing 055 (block plan).
Relevant national and local policies that are material to the determination of the application include the National Planning Policy Framework (December 2023) (the NPPF), particularly section 13 (protecting green belt land) and polices CP3, NE2, CP8 and GB1, of the B&NES Local Plan – Core Strategy and Placemaking Plan incorporating the Local Plan Partial Update: Volume 1, District-wide Strategy and Polices (January 2023) (Vol.1).
It is not wholly evident without the benefit of a site visit or a comprehensive Heritage Impact Assessment; however, it appears that the array will have nil/negligible impact on how the LB is experienced and therefore its setting will not be harmed.
The NPPF includes “When located in the Green Belt, elements of many renewable energy projects will comprise inappropriate development. In such cases developers will need to demonstrate very special circumstances if projects are to proceed. Such very special circumstances may include the wider environmental benefits associated with increased production of energy from renewable sources” (para. 156).
Given the location of the proposal site in an elevated position, within the setting of the World Heritage Site, Green Belt and Cotswold National Landscape, the Local Planning Authority (the LPA) should consider if the following from policy NE2 (Vol.1) has been fully met.
“3. Proposals with potential to impact on the landscape / townscape character of an area or on views should be accompanied by a Landscape and Visual Impact Assessment undertaken by a qualified practitioner to inform the design and location of any new development.”
If the LPA moves to permit the scheme, then suitable conditions regarding planting, including its maintenance and retention should be attached to the decision.