A date has been set for a public inquiry into controversial plans for almost 600 homes on high-grade farmland on the outskirts of Thornbury. The planning appeal to decide whether to allow the huge development on fields west of Park Farm, Butt Lane, including a primary school, a retail and community hub, parkland, allotments and new roads, was initially scheduled for May as a virtual hearing.
Illness of a “key participant” forced its postponement but it has now been rearranged and will take place, in person, from 10am on Thursday, September 29, to Friday, October 14, at Turnberries Community Centre, Bath Road, Thornbury. Developers Barwood Development Securities appealed to the Planning Inspectorate after South Gloucestershire Council failed to determine their application in time.
That took the decision out of the local authority’s hands but the strategic sites delivery committee members agreed in January that they would have rejected the scheme if they still had the power to do so. They described the proposals for the site in open countryside outside the settlement boundary as “speculative” because it was contrary to the development plan and would have harmed the setting of Thornbury Castle and a church, both Grade I-listed.
