Plans for two bungalows in Hallow rejected

A plan to build two bungalows on green space in a village could still be allowed to go ahead despite the council rejecting it for being inappropriate.

The application would see the two bungalows built in the back garden of a home off Church Lane in Hallow near Worcester.

Malvern Hills District Council ruled that the work should not be allowed to go ahead because it did not have any good reasons to make an exception and allow housing to be built on green space.

The people behind the bungalow plan have now appealed to the government’s planning inspector, which has the power to overrule the council, in a bid to controversially get the decision overturned.

Planners at Malvern Hills District Council said the plots were not an “appropriate exception” that would allow the council to approve of the application and build on open countryside and outside Hallow’s agreed boundary.

Despite saying that it could not allow homes to be built on green space in Hallow, the council’s planners did say they could see the plan coming forward [that could be] accommodated comfortably within the site and would not be overdevelopment” and “without harming the character or appearance of [the village].”

Hallow Parish Council spoke out against the plan saying the land was outside the village’s development boundary and there was no evidence of any need for self-build plots.

Council planners recently turned down another – albeit much larger – housing plan in Hallow for similar reasons.

The controversial plan by Platform Housing to build 40 ‘affordable’ homes on almost five acres of farmland off the village’s Oakleigh Heath was rejected by council planners because there was no justification to build outside Hallow’s earmarked boundary for housing.

A plan to build 76 homes on the land was rejected by Malvern Hills District Council in 2017 – almost 18 months after it was put forward.

An appeal was then made to the government’s planning inspector in a bid to get the decision overturned and while the number of homes was reduced to 38, the plea was still rejected.