We recently successfully secured planning permission for two retrospective developments. The first was granted on appeal and was for parking for JT Event Truck Ltd and Knowhow on a field located between the Chiltern view Nursery and the Triangle Business Park in Stoke Mandeville.  We were able to persuade the Inspector that as both companies had inadequate parking at their business premises the loss of the parking would directly impact upon their ability to trade and could threaten their viability and the workforce they employ.  The potential loss of many jobs that are reliant on the two hard surfaced accesses and parking areas, needed to efficiently operate, would have detrimental social impact and would not support the aim of creating and maintaining strong, vibrant and healthy communities.

We were also able to demonstrate that the proposed landscaping scheme would lead to a considerable beneficial impact on the appearance of the area and offset visual harm from the parking. This included habitat creation including native species tree planting; hedgerow planting; the creation of an attenuation pond and the planting of pond edge and hedgerow mixes of wildflowers. This Inspector concluded: ‘ To my mind his would make up for any damage that may have been caused, and simply reinstating the field by removing the car parking would not be likely to be as beneficial.’

Our second permission, also in Stoke Mandeville, was for the creation of an insert stage area at the Waste Transfer Station at Chiltern View Nursery.  This also included the erection of concrete retaining walls for security.  This permission which was granted by Buckinghamshire Council also includes biodiversity and landscape mitigation including planting up gaps in the adjoining hedgerow; erection of bat boxes; construction of hibernacula for great crested newts and painting the concrete retaining walls dark green so they do not stand out from the adjoining vegetation.