Queniborough, Leicestershire

Key Project Information

• 150 new homes
• Won on appeal after the Inspector agreed that any adverse effects would be highly localised, and the scheme could be suitably mitigated.

This scheme was refused by Charnwood Borough Council in December 2022, on the grounds of conflict with the adopted local plan policy and coalescence between two settlements.

We were appointed to provide expert landscape advice and represented the client as the landscape expert witness at the Public Inquiry in June 2023.

Our landscape team prepared a strong case for this landscape-sensitive site and the appeal was allowed in November 2023.

Challenges Overcome

The site is on the on the edge of Queniborough, a village in Leicestershire, within an “Area of Local Separation” ie, an area designated in the local plan to be kept open in order to prevent the coalescence of settlements.

We tackled this key challenge head on, creating a series of visualisations of the most contentious aspects of the proposed development in context. We demonstrated that, while the proposal would impact on the experience of footpath users across the site, walkers would still be able to perceive Queniborough and Syston as two distinct places.

The inspector agreed with us that any adverse landscape and visual impacts would be highly localised and limited, and that mitigation proposed by Pegasus would soften the overall visual effects and suitably limit any harm arising from the proposal.

Ultimately, we demonstrated that while the development would reduce the amount of ‘open land’ between the two settlements in physical terms, the proposal would still sit within the existing context of built form, not alter the perception of there being two distinct places and not erode the function of the Area of Local Separation.