# 30 Honeysuckle Gardens, Hatfield

- **Decision:** dismissed, 20 August 2026
- **Decided by:** Planning Inspector: E Everitt
- **Authority:** Welwyn Hatfield (East of England)
- **Appeal reference:** 6006744
- **Application reference:** 6/2025/2268/FULL
- **Procedure:** householder
- **Development:** Close-boarded fence enclosing open amenity land beside an end-terrace house as garden (change of use)
- **Site context:** inside-settlement
- **Green Belt:** no
- **Framework applied:** August 2026 NPPF
- **Determinative policies:** DP3(1)
- **Development plan policies:** Welwyn Hatfield Local Plan 2016-2036 SP 1, SP 9, SADM 16, District Plan Supplementary Design Guidance 2005
- **Main issues:** character and appearance
- **Tags:** tier-2, transitional-no-consultation, design-refusal, amenity-land-enclosure, householder

## Summary
Fencing off part of an open planted verge beside a Hatfield terrace to extend a garden. Dismissed. It would erode a "welcome break in the built form" and put close-boarded fencing unusually near the road (DL ¶5-7). The Framework is invoked only generically.

## What made the difference
In a planned estate, open amenity land that forms part of the layout is protected on character grounds even where the area is "pleasant but unremarkable" (DL ¶8).

## Policy findings
- **DP3(1): fail.** loss of open verdant land in planned layout, fence closer to road than any other: "contrary to ... the relevant provisions of the Framework" — no code cited, no DP3(3) wording; mapped by harvester (DL 5-9)

## Key facts
- Only benefit is extra private garden, limited weight (DL 10)
- Parties not re-consulted on the 2026 Framework (DL 3)

## Sources
- https://appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/comment-planning-appeal/appeals/6006744
- https://appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/published-document/634d6f9f-78d0-4407-aadb-f4c3b5bc14ed

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Source: https://planningdistilled.org/research/england/nppf-navigator/decisions/PINS-6006744.html

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