- Decision
- dismissed, 22 September 2026
- Decided by
- Planning Inspector: K Dryden
- Authority
- Hounslow (London)
- Appeal reference
- 6012542
- Application reference
- P/2025/3419
- Procedure
- written representations
- Development
- Permanent timber enclosure to front outdoor seating area of a Class E premises, with shopfront door alterations
- Site context
- inside settlement, conservation area
- Green Belt
- No
- Framework applied
- August 2026 NPPF
- Determinative policies
- HE6, TR4, S4(1)
- Development plan policies
- Hounslow Local Plan 2015-2030 CC1, CC2, CC4, EC2, London Plan 2021 HC1, D4, T2
- Main issues
- conservation area; pedestrian safety
Summary
The appeal was for a permanent timber enclosure around outdoor dining in front of a Chiswick High Road restaurant, in a conservation area. It was dismissed. The inspector found low harm to the CA, which unquantified business benefits did not outweigh. The enclosure was also a TR4 pedestrian-safety failure on a busy footway. The E2 and TC2 substantial-weight benefits were "substantially outweighed" under S4 (DL ¶31).
What made the difference
The mature street tree right in front of the premises. It left only a 2 m pinch-point on a busy shopping and bus-stop footway. The inspector used Active Travel England guidance to require more than 2 m there (DL ¶20). Together with harm to the wide-pavement character the CA appraisal values, heritage harm (HE6) and TR4 outweighed two substantial-weight economic policies. This is the same inspector and reasoning pattern as PINS-6011521.
Policy findings
Policy codes are those of the National Planning Policy Framework (August 2026) unless a development plan is named.
| Policy | Finding | Weight | Note |
|---|---|---|---|
| HE6 | harm | considerable | low harm to Chiswick High Road CA - bulky enclosure erodes the wide footway and street trees the appraisal identifies as important; unquantified economic benefits do not outweigh (DL 9-16) |
| TR4 | fail | 2m clear width retained next to a mature tree, but Active Travel England guidance seeks wider footways on busy shopping streets near bus stops; unsafe for disabled and visually impaired pedestrians (DL 18-21) | |
| S4(1) | fail | E2 and TC2 substantial-weight benefits substantially outweighed by heritage and pedestrian-safety harm (DL 29-31) |
Key facts
- Enclosure projects into a busy footway beside a mature street tree; 2m kept past the tree trunk, about 2.8m beyond it (DL 18-19)
- Temporary street-trading licence for tables gives limited weight - it is a different regime from a permanent structure (DL 22)
Related decisions
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.