Inquiry rules green belt works must be removed

A developer has been ordered to halt work on a holiday let site and remove buildings, with 100 trees to be planted in their place, after their planning appeal failed.

In May, the planning inspector ordered works on "irreplaceable" woodland in Silsden be destroyed and 300 trees planted, but the developer appealed the decision.

They said work had taken place more than four years before the notice was issued and was completed before they acquired the site.

But, during a four-day planning inquiry in July, planning inspector Paul Hocking said site photos and a visit he made "directly contradicts the appellant's version of events". Bradford Council was given permission to reclaim "significant" costs.

Hocking concluded two structures were likely to have been built more than four years ago – and so could remain on the site - and reduced the amount of trees needed from 300 to 100, but upheld the rest of the enforcement notice.

Under current planning laws developments started before 25 April 2024 and more than four years old are immune from enforcement.

Earlier this year Bradford Council issued an enforcement notice to the company, AZARA GIDA SAN.VE TIC.LTD.ŞTİ, which had carried out the work on the protected green belt site at Jacob's Wood without planning permission.

It was ordered to stop the work and remove buildings, concrete pads and access roads, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

During the inquiry, the appellants claimed they had bought the land after the work had already been done by previous owners in and around 2020.

The developer also claimed landslides were responsible for the loss of many of the trees on the site and not felling, but the inspector did not accept the claim.

"It is plain from the photographic evidence that stockpiling of the type and scale could not have been undertaken if trees had remained in situ," he said.

Hard standings, septic tanks, mounds of construction materials and some access roads need to be removed in the next 12 months.

The developer was given 20 months to plant 100 trees.

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