Berkhamsted Golf Driving Range, Spring Garden Lane, Northchurch

Application No. 20/02052/MFA

Demolition of the existing building associated with the Golf Driving Range and the redevelopment of the site to provide a 70 bedroom care home catering for the elderly, infirm and those suffering with dementia, including associated access and landscaping works at Berkhamsted Golf Driving Range, Spring Garden Lane, Northchurch, Berkhamsted, Hertfordshire HP4 3GY

CPRE Hertfordshire have concerns regarding this proposal for development in the Green Belt and the Chilterns Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

We accept that the site is previously developed land and that a precedent was set by the Council in permitting the development of the St Francis Hospice on the adjoining site. However, the National Planning Policy Framework permits development on previously developed sites in the Green Belt only where these will have no greater impact on the openness of the Green Belt than the existing. (NPPF para 145g).

The site is surrounded on three sides by open fields and Public Right of Way 25 runs to the Northwest. As can be seen from the photographs accompanying the Landscape and Visual Appraisal, the site is clearly visible from Public Right of Way (PROW) 25 along a 110 metre stretch. Though comparable footprints are not given, scaling off the submitted drawings indicates that the footprint of the proposed care home is two and a half time greater than the existing golf driving range, and the volume considerably greater. Consequently the openness of the Green Belt will be affected by the development when viewed from the PROW and the surrounding countryside.