# 16 Wellington Drive, Bracknell

- **Decision:** dismissed, 17 September 2026
- **Decided by:** Planning Inspector: Megan Thomas KC
- **Authority:** Bracknell Forest (South East)
- **Appeal reference:** 6010429
- **Application reference:** 25/00557/FUL
- **Procedure:** written-representations
- **Development:** Dropped kerb, paved driveway, low fence, change of use of amenity land to garden
- **Site context:** inside-settlement, TPO
- **Green Belt:** no
- **Framework applied:** August 2026 NPPF
- **Determinative policies:** S4(1)
- **Development plan policies:** Bracknell Forest Local Plan 2024 Policies 25, 28, 53, 54, Bracknell Town Neighbourhood Plan HO4
- **Main issues:** character and trees, highway safety, BNG
- **Tags:** tier-2, s4-within-settlement, s4-substantially-outweighed, tr6-highway-safety, bng-exemption-not-shown, householder, parties-consulted-on-2026-framework

## Summary
A driveway, crossover and fencing on open-plan frontage land at a Bracknell New Town estate house opposite a primary school. Dismissed on three grounds. The fencing would harm the estate's open frontages and risk the roots of TPO trees. The visibility splay was over land outside the appellant's control, next to the school entrance. And no BNG metric was provided. The benefits were substantially outweighed under S4 (DL ¶16).

## What made the difference
Road safety next to the school entrance, which cannot be managed by occupier intent because permission runs with the land (DL ¶12). The missing BNG information was an independent failure that a condition could not cure.

## Policy findings
- **S4(1): fail.** harm to open New Town frontages and TPO roots, visibility splay over third-party land opposite a primary school entrance, no BNG metric (DL 7-16)
- **N2: fail.** more than 25 sq m habitat affected; no 10% BNG evidence; not conditionable (DL 14-15)

## Key facts
- Opposite the Harmans Water Primary School entrance; splay land outside appellant's control
- Corpus HO4 tag is the Neighbourhood Plan's HO4, not the Framework's

## Sources
- https://appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/comment-planning-appeal/appeals/6010429
- https://appeal-planning-decision.service.gov.uk/published-document/4408f2eb-ef4a-47a0-9f68-48830c9a2ca3

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Source: https://planningdistilled.org/research/england/nppf-navigator/decisions/PINS-6010429.html

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