A landowner faced a planning enforcement challenge after converting a field into a sports pitch with floodlighting and a small equipment store. They appointed AssetSphere to manage the regularisation of the change of use from agricultural land to domestic recreational use.
The council’s planning enforcement team had raised concerns about the change of use. Their main issues regarded the light levels and ecological impact resulting from the installation and set-up of the floodlights.
The site was an especially sensitive one as it was located within an impact risk zone of a SSSI, near to a Grade II-listed heritage asset. It was also within an E2 lighting area. E2 is a rural classification where lighting intrusion must be kept to a minimum permissible level.
Light pollution has become an increasingly important environmental and social issue over the last few decades. New external lighting therefore requires careful consideration in order to comply with planning requirements. (Useful insights about the reduction of light pollution can also be found in this guide from the Institution of Lighting Professionals.)
We appointed a specialist lighting consultant and an ecological consultant. We tasked them with identifying measures to bring the light levels to within permissable levels, and mitigate the impact on surrounding ecology.
By working closely with all parties including our consultants and the client, we carefully addressed the concerns outlined by the planning authority.
Negotiating extra time – then achieving the planning goal
Several time-limited conditions had to be addressed after approval of the primary retrospective application. This could have proved difficult for our client, but we were able to successfully negotiate extensions to the original restrictive 3-month variation of conditions deadlines.
A final discharge of conditions application was subsequently submitted. It clearly demonstrated compliance with the approved lighting specification and ecological mitigation and enhancement measures.
This application was also successful and fully resolved the planning enforcement team’s issues relating to the site.