Homes for 'fly tipped' green belt Valley View Farm shot down

Yesterday (January 22), Three Rivers District Council published its decision notice refusing plans to build eight houses and shared sports facilities after remediating contaminated land in Oxhey Lane, Carpenders Park.

Known as Valley View Farm, although it is no longer in its former use as a pig farm, the site has “mounds of spoil and fly-tipped material visible”, which the application highlighted would be cleared and replaced with a "highly attractive" environment.

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Despite any contamination of the field, the homes would have been built on green belt land and the council’s decision reflected this.

It said that building the homes would be “directly contrary to the purposes of the green belt” and no ‘very special circumstances’ exist, which would be required to outweigh harm.

The site, by Grims Dyke Golf Course. (Image: Google Maps/Canva)

It also had concerns about saturation of the existing junction between Oxhey Lane and Little Oxhey Lane and how this would be worsened by more homes and a new access being built right next to it.

The council also listed the proposed access road’s visibility, flooding impact, and a lack of affordable housing as reasons for refusal.

The oversaturated junction (facing towards the site). (Image: Google Street View)

The Planning Inspectorate heard and dismissed an appeal after a plan for 14 homes at the same site was refused by the council in 2016.