14th May – Pegasus Group has helped Greystoke to secure planning permission in the Green Belt at Abbots Langley, Hertfordshire. It followed a Call-In Inquiry and involved a proposal for a 84,000sqm hyperscale data centre and country park on a largely greenfield site at Bedmond Road, on land bounded to the north by the M25 motorway.
It will meet an identified need for data centre development and responds to recent changes to the National Planning Policy Framework (NPPF) which explicitly refer to data centres. The proposal would provide 96 MW of capacity and would represent a capital investment of around £1billion at a time when the Government is seeking to encourage economic growth. The Secretary of State (SoS) attributed significant weight to the need for data centre provision, the lack of available alternative sites, and the scale of the investment proposed, together with the economic and employment benefits it would deliver.
Importantly, the SoS also agreed that the site comprises Grey Belt. This meant that the proposals would not represent inappropriate development in the Green Belt. As such it was not necessary for the Appellant to demonstrate that Very Special Circumstances existed to justify the grant of permission.
It was recognised that there would be harm in terms of landscape & visual impact and also some harm to both designated and non-designated heritage assets but the overall conclusion was that the appeal should be allowed.
The Inquiry Team led by Alexander Booth KC of FTB Chambers included Stephen Nicol (Economics), Ashley Collins (Need), Paul Harris (Landscape), David Hutchison and Ben Kelly (Planning).
To read the decision letter and inspector’s report, visit this link: https://bit.ly/3F1dppd.