Rowland appeals Bolton Grey belt rejection
Should six acres off Arthur Lane be considered Grey Belt? That will be the question the Planning Inspectorate must ponder at an upcoming inquiry.
Rowland Homes is seeking to overturn Bolton Council’s decision to reject plans for 80 homes – including 40 affordable properties – on a site the developer argues is Grey Belt, rather than Green Belt.
Bolton refused Rowland outline consent for the scheme against the recommendation of the council’s expert planning team, who agreed with the developer that the site is Grey Belt.
To be deemed as Grey Belt, a Green Belt site must not:
- strongly contribute to checking unrestricted sprawl of built-up areas
- prevent neighbouring towns from merging into one another
- preserve the character of historic towns
If the council chooses to contest the appeal, it will be up against it. Grey Belt has been tested at the Planning Inspectorate level repeatedly over the past year and a recent report from Savills noted that of the 20 major planning appeals in the Grey Belt thus far, 16 have been allowed. That equates to an 80% success rate.
Also working against the council is its housing land supply position, which consultant Pegasus estimates to be 4.15 years against a statutory target of five years. Councils unable to prove a five-year housing land supply typically find it harder to defend the refusal of residential applications at appeal.
The project team for Rowland Homes included Pegasus, Redmore Environmental, Fenix Heritage, Urban Green, RSK, E3P, MCK, and Mode Transport Planning. You can view the application by searching reference 21082/25 on Bolton Council’s planning portal.
