Special area of conservation

Emma Lou

I was just wondering if anyone was successful in being granted planning permission for a new dwelling in a Special area of conservation?

It is a family site where my partner was born and raised and it really is the only chance we have of owning our own home. Our engineer is happy with the site and we would otherwise be likely granted permission (we tick the boxes, so to speak) but he seems to think it would be a blanket no because of SAC. On the website it says "if the development would have an impact on the ecology of the area", Most other new houses in the area were "refurbishments" I.E. existing ruins where, essentially new builds were constructed..

Can anyone shed a bit of light on the topic for me??

hometruths

Emma Lou wrote: »

I was just wondering if anyone was successful in being granted planning permission for a new dwelling in a Special area of conservation?

It is a family site where my partner was born and raised and it really is the only chance we have of owning our own home. Our engineer is happy with the site and we would otherwise be likely granted permission (we tick the boxes, so to speak) but he seems to think it would be a blanket no because of SAC. On the website it says "if the development would have an impact on the ecology of the area", Most other new houses in the area were "refurbishments" I.E. existing ruins where, essentially new builds were constructed..

Can anyone shed a bit of light on the topic for me??

Will it have significant adverse impact on the integrity of the site? if so, answer is no planning.

Difficult to give any other opinion without knowing which SAC it is - i.e what is being protected?

Emma Lou

Its the Slyne Head Area SAC. We plan on a modest single story/1.5 story house on land currently grazed by cattle.

hometruths

I'd say your engineer is correct, as I imagine it would be very difficult to argue that a new build house would not have an impact in this area, as the SAC covers a multitude of things.

Google Article 6 of the Habitats Directive. It is pretty rigid law with not much flexibility. I'd say your best bet is a preplanning meeting with the council to see what your chances are of arguing that there is no impact. It could be possible that your specific site within the larger area will not have an impact.

PS I am no legal or planning expert - have just done a lot of research on this subject recently re a related question!

Dudda

I don’t know the exact site or detains but in general I’d be shocked if you got planning.

First I want to state that building a new house isn’t cheap and it’s generally still cheaper to buy an existing house than build a new one due to the price of materials, shortage of labor and new regulations requiring high levels of energy performance. This is particularly true in rural areas where prices are still low so if the reason for building is it’s cheaper and you’ve a site this isn’t necessary true.

Again I don’t know where your site is but overall from a planners point of view, empty houses exist in the area and a very quick look at the overall area shows a few houses available to purchase. Some in decent shape and others shells which are basically sites. If you had say 300k to build a new house you could afford all of the current houses and refurbish or put an extension on them.
If you’ve only 100k you won’t be able to build a house for that anyway.

selfbuild17

You should get an ecologist on board to see if the risks to the SAC could be reduced, mitigated and justified.