An appeal against a refusal to allow 10 business units to be built has been dismissed.

St Albans District Council previously refused the application to demolish the existing buildings at Moor Mill Tanker Depot in Bricket Wood to build 10 starter business units on the grounds that it would be an inappropriate development on Green Belt land.

An appeal made by P B Donoghue (Construction) Ltd against the decision has today been dismissed by Matthew Nunn at the Planning Inspectorate.

The 10 new units would have been positioned in five rows, each comprising a pair of units.

The site (pictured in the map below) has not been used for several years.

The council’s second ground for refusal was down to the absence of a legal agreement to secure a financial contribution of £25,000 towards sustainable transport measures.

The amount was calculated by Hertfordshire County Council based on the number of trips generated by the proposal estimated by the appellant.

The money would have been used to upgrade bus stops on the nearby A5183 road, as well as improving the 30mph gateway/speed limit boundary feature to incorporate a pedestrian crossing refuge layout.

Since the refusal of the application, developers completed another application, which included a covenant to pay a financial contribution of £25,000 to Hertfordshire County Council.

However, the district council raised concerns in relation to applications enforceability by the county council, discrepancies over the ownership of the land and certificates supplied with the original planning application, and the concerns that the copy of the Land Registry’s Official Register of Title is over a year old, meaning those with an interest in the land may have changed.

Mr Nunn dismissed the appeal and said the arguments by developers did not outweigh the harm the scheme would cause through inappropriateness, in terms of Green Belt openness and in respect of the character and appearance of the area.

He added: "Consequently, very special circumstances do not exist. The development cannot therefore be justified."