Pavement outside 42 New Street, Huddersfield

Decision

dismissed, 7 September 2026

Decided by

Planning Inspector: Alec Hickey

Authority

Kirklees (Yorkshire and the Humber)

Appeal reference

6010396

Application reference

2026/62/90544/W

Procedure

written representations

Development

BT Street Hub with two 75-inch digital advert screens replacing a BT kiosk (Appeal A); advert consent Appeal B 6010399 (2026/64/90545/W)

Site context

inside settlement, conservation area, listed building setting

Green Belt

No

Framework applied

August 2026 NPPF

Determinative policies

HE6(4)

Development plan policies

Kirklees Local Plan 2019 LP17, LP24, LP35

Main issues

conservation area and listed building settings; visual amenity (advert)

Summary

BT Street Hub replacing an old kiosk on pedestrianised New Street, Huddersfield, among four Grade II listed buildings in the town-centre conservation area. Both appeals dismissed. The parties were consulted on the 2026 Framework, yet the letter still grades the harm as "less than substantial". It then asks whether the benefits achieve "substantial public benefits", which is the test for substantial harm.

Issues and findings

• Heritage — HE9 / HE6. The hub "would be considerably more prominent, overt and intrusive than the kiosk currently in place. Its height, illuminated screen and changing displays would interrupt views along New Street and compete with the historic elevations" (DL ¶17).
• Grading. "I find the harm to the CA and the listed buildings to be at the lower end of the scale of less than substantial, but nonetheless of considerable importance and weight" (DL ¶20).
• Balance. "even acknowledging the support in the Framework for high quality communications … these public benefits would be very modest and attract moderate weight … the identified benefits do not achieve substantial public benefits sufficient to outweigh the less than substantial harm" (DL ¶22).

Planning balance

HE6(4) harm against public benefits. Telecoms benefits got moderate weight, with no CO1 "substantial weight" (contrast PINS-6010352, where CO1 substantial weight was given but the benefits were called modest).

What made the difference

Replacing a kiosk one-for-one did not help, because the hub is taller, illuminated and animated in a street of listed frontages. It would sit right at the Imperial Arcade entrance framed by 42-48 New Street.

Transferable points

• A like-for-like replacement of street furniture does not neutralise harm where the replacement is materially taller and illuminated (DL ¶17).
• Inconsistency across inspectors: some still use the "less than substantial" scale after 17 August 2026, and here the balance was framed as needing "substantial public benefits". That test belongs to substantial harm under HE6(5) (DL ¶20-22).

Policy findings

Policy codes are those of the National Planning Policy Framework (August 2026) unless a development plan is named.

Key facts

• Hub directly replaces an existing kiosk — no net increase in clutter, but taller and illuminated (DL 15-17)
• Settings of Grade II 34, 36, 40 and 42-48 New Street; pedestrianised street in Huddersfield Town Centre CA (DL 7-13)
• Parties had the opportunity to comment on the 2026 Framework (DL 2)

Related decisions

• PINS-6010180
• PINS-6010352

Sources

• Appeal on the Planning Inspectorate appeals service
• Decision letter (Planning Inspectorate)

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.