Ribble Valley rejects pair of resi proposals

In the spotlight over recent defeats at appeal, the council’s planning committee has voted in line with officers in refusing one scheme, and gone against them in opposing another.

Ribble Valley Council’s planning and development committee on Thursday 23 July considered applications from Specialist Diesel for 85 homes in Osbaldeston – recommended for refusal –  and Persimmon Homes North West for  80 homes in Wilpshire, a site with a lengthy planning history, where having failed with previous bids, the application team had come up with a version amenable to officers.

As reported by Place earlier this month, Ribble Valley’s director of planning has issued a warning to members that refusals in the face of officer advice, followed by defeats at appeal, could see Ribble Valley’s planning function placed in special measures, a fate that has recently befallen Rossendale.

Land east of Salebury View, Wilpshire (reference 3/2025/0801)

Persimmon, working with WSP, had put forward plans for 80 homes, including 30% affordable housing, for a site with a long planning history.

The housebuilder met with frustration, however, with committee resolving to refuse the application on the grounds of accessibility and visual impact. The application will now go before the next committee meeting on 20 August, at which it is expected the reasons for refusal will be agreed in full.

Persimmon’s site is within the settlement boundary, and is allocated for housing. Officers spelled out in meeting papers that the whole scheme fits within this allocation, and doesn’t impinge on the Green Belt site to the east. Ribble Valley’s lack of a five-year housing land supply was also referenced.

Changes made to the earlier plans noted by officers included the introduction of buffer zones, and the reduction in density. Officers noted that the scheme addresses the concerns raised by a planning inspector when assessing the earlier iteration.

The officer recommendation was to defer and delegate authority to the planning director to approve the plans, following the completion of legal agreements.

Persimmon’s site has raised local ire. The developer was refused permission in 2023 for a slightly larger scheme, and subsequently lost at appeal.

Wilpshire Parish Council is an objector to the current proposal, setting out reasons including that the site is a steeply sloping one, at the edge of the settlement boundary, and is highly visible. Ramsgreave Parish Council, in an even lengthier submission, also set out its opposition. More than 150 public objections were also recorded.

However, statutory consultees were not opposed. Lancashire County Council’s highways team is satisfied with the plans subject to mitigation measures, the flood authority is happy with the revised drainage strategy, and the Greater Manchester Ecology Unit said that with appropriate measures, it had no issues.

Of the 56 market sale homes, 35 would be three-bed, 19 four-bed, and two five-bed. The submitted layout proposes vehicular access as an extension of Salesbury View, which is accessed off Whalley Road. Pedestrian links to the site via the existing footpath network to the east is also proposed.

The officer report for the meeting said that the “officer view is that the development would not be harmful to the visual amenity or landscape character with the conditions suggested to ensure appropriate mitigation and compensation planting is secured.

“However, if Committee were minded to disagree with the officer assessment and identify visual and landscape harm then this harm is considered to have, at most, moderate weight. In which case, even applying the tilted balance, this would not justify a refusal of planning permission as the harm would not significantly and demonstrably outweigh the benefits identified.”

Causeway Farm (reference 3/2026/0078)

Specialist Diesel’s bid was recommended for refusal on seven grounds, and came with a bevy of objections registered.

The parish councils of Osbaldestone, Balderstone and Mellor strongly objected, while Lancashire County Council’s highways team and a number of other statutory consultees also either raised concerns or objected outright. A further 240 objections were recorded.

Submitted for outline consent, the application was for land at Causeway Farm off Longsight Road, Osbaldestone. The 10-acre site is around two miles south-west of Blackburn. A single access point from Longsight Road was proposed.

PWA Planning and CTD worked with the applicant on the project, which was refused on seven grounds, suggested by officers and agreed at committee.

These were:

• Large-scale residential in an unsustainable location
• That consent would see “the introduction of an incongruous, unsympathetic and discordant form of development”
• Failure to demonstrate that development would not harm protected species
• Loss of habitats
• Failure to demonstrate access would be safe and suitable
• Drainage
• Failure to show that future residents would be protected from unacceptable noise pollution.

A single access would come from Longsight Road. Credit: planning documents

In recent months, Ribble Valley has had decisions to refuse two major schemes overturned by the Planning Inspectorate – Oakmere’s 74-home Whalley project and Hallam Land’s 300-dwelling scheme in Langho. 

The quality of a council’s decision-making is judged on its performance at appeal; too many defeats can result in the government stripping local authorities of planning autonomy.