Preston triumphs in Broughton appeal

A planning inspector has agreed that 95 homes off Garstang Road would represent a major development in a rural setting, rebuffing appellant Gladman’s bid to overturn an October 2025 refusal.

Preston City Council rejected the application – a project that has been in the works since 2019 – last year, with the committee naming three reasons for refusal. Two of these, relating to highways and skills provision, were addressed prior to the hearing.

That just left the suitability of development, to be judged in the context of Preston’s hierarchy of locations – the council having a well-established number of major strategic allocations, but also dealing with a historic backlog of housing applications on rural and semi-rural sites.

Would it represent unplanned expansion of a village? Would it be unsuitable under the terms of Preston’s local plan policy on open countryside? And would Preston be able to defend its position – ie, is the council’s pipeline of housing land supply robust enough?

In the inspector’s view at the informal hearing, the answer to all those questions was ‘yes’.

The site sits outside Broughton’s settlement boundary. In applying the spatial strategy, Preston said, the inspector noted that Broughton is identified within the lowest tier of the settlement hierarchy – where development is expected to be limited in scale, typically shown in ‘infill’ schemes.

While the appellant had argued that the development could be adjudged as small scale, the inspector agreed with the local authority’s view that close to 100 homes across 10 acres represents major development.

The hearing touched on another long-running rural Preston wrangle, a bid for 85 homes at Swainson Farm on the edge of Goosnargh, which saw a putative development consortium defeated at appeal in March.

While the inspector said that the Swainson Farm inquiry’s conclusions were not determinative in this case, “it was evident from the decision that the approach taken in the Swainson Farm case was considered convincing and robust by the Inspector and hence a similar position was reached”.

In short, the site’s position as adjoining a settlement which sits at the bottom of the development hierarchy meant it would fundamentally conflict with the councils sustainability aims as set out in local planning policy.

Ultimately, although the inspector’s view of Preston’s overall supply position differed from the Swainson appeal – and at 5.3 years, is some way below the 6.7 years quoted when Gladman’s plans were refused at committee last year – it is still above the requisite five years.

There will, inevitably, be more to come regarding mid-size, fringe location Preston housing bids.

AAB Developments and Lester Developments will put their case to the Planning Inspectorate this summer, having been granted a July date as they seek to overturn November’s refusal for 75 homes south of Broughton Park, its fourth failed attempt to secure a consent at the site.