Land off Butts Lane, Tanworth-in-Arden

26/00918/PIP · Stratford-on-Avon District Council · Planning Committee, 9 September 2026 · notice 11 September 2026 · granted

Permission in principle for a minimum of three and a maximum of nine dwellings, in a village washed over by the Green Belt.

Planning record · Committee report · Minutes and Update Report

Cited in: 4. Location shortcuts in the Green Belt; 5. Walking routes and stations

Why this is cited. The mistake: the report first applied the S5(1)(j) “well-related to an existing settlement” test to a site in a washed-over Green Belt village, and on location leaned partly on existing use (“Villagers appear to cope”) and on the village's Local Service Village status. What should have happened: a washed-over village is not a “settlement” and S5 does not apply in the Green Belt (S5(5)), so GB6 and GB7 alone, which the report went on to apply, were the right route; and limb (iii) should be decided on the route, the services and the transport for all users, with the Connectivity Tool, which is the test inspectors apply.

Key points

S5(1)(j) test applied: the report named "NDMP S5.1, Part J (Principle of development outside settlements)" (p.8) and found "the development would be well-related to an existing settlement and would be of a scale that the local settlement could accommodate" (p.9).
Walking route, in the S5 and TR3 section: "some sections of that walk do not benefit from pavements" (p.9); "the absence of pavements is for very short lengths only and on not especially busy roads and where speeds are low" (p.9). "Villagers appear to cope with this existing situation without any great trouble" (p.9).
The report then applied GB7, relying on that assessment for limb (iii): "As set out above, it is acknowledged that there are pavements linking the site to the rest of the village" (p.13). It added that Tanworth "Tanworth in Arden is a Local Service Village and as such is considered to be a sustainable settlement" (p.13), and passed limb (iii) "despite the identified conflicts with Policies CS.15, CS.16 and AS.10" (p.13).

Quotations are from the officer report, decision notice or appeal decision letter, with page (p.) or paragraph (¶) numbers. Read the decision itself for the full reasoning.

Summarised for the note on Stratford decisions under the August 2026 NPPF. Not legal advice. Back to the note.