- Decision
- dismissed, 23 September 2026
- Decided by
- Planning Inspector: S F Barnes
- Authority
- Thurrock (East of England)
- Appeal reference
- 6010223
- Application reference
- 25/01093/CV
- Procedure
- written representations
- Development
- s73 variation of opening-hours condition for a local shop (08:00-22:00 to 07:00-23:00)
- Site context
- inside settlement
- Green Belt
- No
- Framework applied
- August 2026 NPPF
- Determinative policies
- P3, S4(1)
- Development plan policies
- Thurrock Core Strategy 2015 PMD1
- Main issues
- living conditions - noise
Summary
Extending a Grays local shop's customer hours by one hour at each end of the day. Dismissed, because of night-time noise from the adjoining customer car park. Under S4, E2 economic benefits carried only limited weight because of the small scale and no evidence of need. The P3 noise harm carried significant weight and "substantially outweighed" the benefits (DL ¶15-16).
What made the difference
The noise evidence was weak: averaged levels, with no assessment of intermittent car-park events. The harm also mapped onto a Framework decision-making policy, P3. E2's "substantial weight" is applied to the size of the actual benefit, which here was small.
Policy findings
Policy codes are those of the National Planning Policy Framework (August 2026) unless a development plan is named.
| Policy | Finding | Weight | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| P3 | fail | significant | night-time car park noise next to habitable-room windows; noise assessment used averages and ignored intermittent events (DL 8-9, 16) |
| E2 | benefit | limited | substantial weight in principle but no evidence the business needs the hours; small scale (DL 15) |
| S4(1) | fail | benefits substantially outweighed (DL 16) |
Key facts
- Customer car park directly below upper-floor flat and beside front windows of 72 London Road
- Noise assessment relied on average levels and did not isolate car-door or engine-start events
Sources
This note is one of the decisions behind the NPPF 2026 Navigator, which shows how each Framework test has been applied across all the decisions in the database. Also available as Markdown.