← Service Village Does Not Mean Sustainable

E · Descriptive only

Land at Doctors Hill, Bournheath

6011301·Bromsgrove·10 Sept 2026allowed·26/00226/PIP

Tier label used

settlement hierarchy (large/small settlements)

The tier sentence ¶22

“Policy BDP2 sets out the settlement hierarchy of the plan area”

Summary

Permission in principle for 3 to 5 dwellings on grey belt land outside the Bournheath settlement boundary, in the Bromsgrove Green Belt. Allowed. All the GB7(1)(g) limbs passed. Limb (iii) passed despite a twice-weekly scheduled bus and car dependence for higher-order services, on the strength of walkable village facilities, lit 30 mph lanes to Fairfield's school and shop, a county on-demand bus serving the site, and a Connectivity Tool score of 43/100 (90th percentile nationally). S5 then applied, and conflict with the settlement boundary did not substantially outweigh the benefits. The appellant's costs application was refused (local copy PINS-6011301-costs.pdf).

The location finding

  • GB7(1)(g)(iii): pass. up to 5 dwellings is significant movement for Bournheath; 3 pubs and hall walkable; Fairfield school/shop reachable on 30 mph lit roads with some footway; twice-weekly bus is no alternative but county on-demand bus serves the site; Connectivity Tool 43/100 (90th percentile nationally) (DL 9-18)
  • TR3: pass. 1(b) and 1(e) met by utilising and supporting the on-demand bus; 1(c)/(d) deferred to TDC (DL 16)

Why this is cited

Hierarchy described; location decided on route and an on-demand bus; allowed. In the register this counts as a descriptive mention that played no part in the reasoning.

Sources

Decision on the Planning Inspectorate appeals service · full decision note · letter pins-corpus/6011301.txt

One entry in a register of 203 decisions that matched the search for a settlement-tier label, each read at every matching passage and classified by how the label influenced the decision. The quotation was checked against the source named above. 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. Source and data: github.com/planningdistilled/research.