An iconic shot of the power station by Mervym_w and posted on Flickr.

Readers may well recall the excellent article about the regeneration of the Reedswood power station site, written by top contributor and Brownhills bloke Andy Dennis. In it, Andy pointed out that further development of the site outside the council’s guidelines was, at the time, subject to appeal by the developers Parkhill Estates Limited, a name not unfamiliar with those following several local planning issues. Andy wanted to add the following:

Hello Bob

I said I would keep abreast of this planning appeal and the outcome has been announced. Parkhill Estates Ltd (PEL) were appealing against the Council’s refusal to grant planning permission to develop the remaining land for housing (ref 10/0610/OL). The Council’s view was that the site should be saved for employment in line with the development plan (the Walsall Unitary Development Plan and the Black Country Joint Core Strategy).

In short, the Inspector agreed with the Council that PEL had not presented any convincing evidence to overcome the policy objection and dismissed the appeal. The Inspector also ordered PEL to pay the Council’s costs. I can’t recall seeing such a comprehensive dismissal by an Inspector; there is no “on balance” about this one!

As a footnote to those who accuse the Council of rolling over, here is yet more evidence of their robustness in dealing with planning issues.

The decision is at

Planning descision.PDF

And the costs decision at

Costs Decision document.PDF

Cheers!

Andy

Whilst I’m not totally with Andy on the subject of Walsall Council being robust on planning issues, it’s certainly illuminating and unusual, as he says, to see such a comprehensive dismissal. Let’s hope this isn’t a one off and that we’ll see more of this forthright approach in future.

My thanks to Andy for bringing it to my attention.