Client
Bride hall Developments Limited
Location
Farnborough, Hampshire
REMIT
To ‘stop up’ a stretch of public highway which dissected the site, proposed for mixed development including 80 bed hotel, restaurant, retail units and residential units in the town centre of Farnborough, Hampshire.
BACKGROUND
RGP assisted in securing planning permission for the development and were retained to progress the ‘stopping up’ procedure immediately after planning permission was granted. The ‘stopping up’ application under Section 247 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended 2004) was submitted to the DfT and was subsequently sent to appeal (in the form of a Public Inquiry) following neighbour objections which were received and which the DfT did not accept were erroneous.
RGP’S APPROACH
RGP utilised Director expertise to act as an expert witness at the Public Inquiry. The section of public highway which required stopping up was a diagonal length of footway of circa 80m in length which residents argued by being ‘stopped up’ would cause a road safety hazard traversing the alternative equidistant route around the periphery of the site.
RGP successfully argued that the stopping up of the footway should be allowed given that there were no grounds for finding the alternative option unsafe or unduly tortuous for pedestrians and indeed the alternative route had safety benefits over and above the route to be stopped up.
As a result the Inspector concluded that the proposed stopping-up met the necessary test of its advantages outweighing the disadvantages or loss to the public generally or those affected nearby. The scheme has now been constructed and opened during the summer of 2016.
