← Service Village Does Not Mean Sustainable

Route decision · no settlement tier cited

Henhurst Lodge, Beare Green

6008528·Mole Valley·16 Sept 2026dismissed·1 dwellings·Green Belt

Summary

The appellant sought to keep an original house, which was due to be demolished under a 2017 replacement-dwelling permission, as an extra dwelling in the Mole Valley Green Belt. Dismissed. Grey belt and unmet need were accepted: the Council has a five-year supply, but its HDT is below 75%. Limb (iii) sustainable location failed on an unlit lane with no footways, remote from the village and station, with a Connectivity Tool score of 25/100. A new driveway through ancient woodland separately failed N6.

The location finding

  • GB7(1)(g)(iii): fail. no footways or lighting on Beare Green Road; bus not shown to stop nearby; well separated from village and Holmwood station; Connectivity Tool score 25/100 (DL 11-13)
  • TR3: fail. Connectivity Tool considered alongside local evidence; occupiers largely reliant on the private car; no genuine choice of modes (DL 12-13)

Route facts recorded

  • Connectivity Tool score 25/100 relied on by the Council (DL 12)
  • Beare Green Road has no pavements or street lighting; A29 constrains routes to Beare Green and Holmwood station (DL 11-12)

What made the difference

Location. Every other grey belt limb passed, including unmet need through the HDT route despite a five-year supply. But a lane with no footways or lighting and remoteness from services failed limb (iii), and the low Connectivity Tool score corroborated this. The ancient woodland driveway was a free-standing second reason.

Sources

Decision on the Planning Inspectorate appeals service · case file cases/PINS-6008528.md

A summary of a public appeal decision from the research dataset behind this page, written from the decision letter. Quotations are checked against the letter. Not legal advice. © Planning Distilled. Text, data and images on this page are released under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 licence: share and adapt them freely, with credit to Planning Distilled. Quotations from decision letters, plans and the Framework remain the copyright of their publishers.