Rocheway Controversy

There’s an unusual planning application coming up at the District Council committee meeting on Thursday night. You can download the report here. (669 kb)

Here’s the nub of the matter: last year the District Council gave permission for the charity Disability Essex to build a building in the Green Belt along Rochway, Rochford. The building would provide offices and a training centre for the charity.

Now, because of complications with their funding, Disability Essex would like permission to lease out part of the building to other suitable bodies – they would want to give the council 28 days notice, and then the council would decide if the bodies were suitable.

However officers are recommending refusal:

“Within the Green Belt the construction of new buildings is inappropriate development and harmful to the character and openness afforded the Green Belt. The building to which this application relates was allowed in very special circumstances, as demonstrated by the applicant in the need for the applicant, amongst other things to be located alongside a mainstream educational establishment and the necessary synergy with the existing college facilities.

The proposal to remove the condition limiting the use of all or part of the building to future users other than the applicant on the basis of funding and operational constraints does not amount to very special circumstances that now justify the use of that part or parts of the building against established Green Belt policy. If allowed, the proposed alternative agreement would prove impractical and would avoid the proper consideration of the merits of a particular user that ought to be considered formally by way of a variation to the existing condition.”