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DC Casebook: Housing: New build - Eco-home faulted on exceptions rule

Housing new build

Planning, 22 August 2008

Plans for a partly subterranean eco-home in East Sussex's High Weald area of outstanding natural beauty have failed to impress an inspector who found fault with its design.

The house would be partly sunk into the land, leaving the upper part of the first floor walls and mono-pitched roof projecting above ground. Glazed windows would face over a sunken terrace and the roof would be planted with grass. The appellant explained that a ground source heat pump and woodchip boiler would heat the highly insulated property. He argued that these features and the removal of several barns justified approval under PPS7's country house exceptions policy.

The inspector decided that the building would project from the ground in an awkward and contrived manner. The design was not of exceptional quality and the proposed heating techniques were not so innovative as to justify permission, he opined. The demolition of the barns would not improve the quality of the area sufficiently to support the scheme, he concluded.

DCS Number 100-056-468

Inspector Richard Thomas; Hearing.