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Land south of Greenfield Road and Clayhill Farm, Greenfield Road, Westoning

CB/25/02017/FULLFull ApplicationRefused
Full

Refused on 20 February 2026

Council decision: Full Application - RefusedDelegated (officer decision)4 reasons for refusal

Approximate location: the centre of the postcode, not the exact property.

Proposal

Construction of a temporary Solar Farm, to include the installation of Solar Panels with transformers, a substation, a DNO control room, a customer substation, GRP comms cabin, security fencing, landscaping and other associated infrastructure and works.

Received
20 June 2025
Decision level
Delegated (officer decision)
  1. Received20 Jun
  2. Validated23 Jun
  3. Consult.31 Dec
  4. Target22 Sep
  5. Decided20 Feb

Decided in 242 days (council typically 56)

About this application

This is a full planning application for a solar installation at Land south of Greenfield Road and Clayhill Farm, Greenfield Road, Westoning. Central Bedfordshire has handled 5,653 applications of this type. This one was decided in 245 days, 27 weeks longer than Central Bedfordshire's typical decision time. The site is in a conservation area, with 1 listed building nearby. There are no previous applications recorded at this address.

82% of full applications at Central Bedfordshire Council were approved. Across all application types, the council typically decides in about 8 weeks (median).

Based on decided applications received in the last 3 years.Planning something similar? See what gets approved on your street

Why it was refused

  1. The proposed development would represent inappropriate development in the Green Belt, which is, by definition, harmful to the Green Belt. The development would also be detrimental to the openness of the Green Belt, and would conflict with the purposes of the Green Belt in paragraph 143 subparagraphs (b) and (c) of the Framework. The positive benefits of the scheme do not amount to very special circumstances which clearly outweigh the harm to the Green Belt, and other harms by way of landscape and visual impact; to highway safety, and to ecology. The proposal is therefore contrary to policy SP4 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan (2021), and section 13 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2024).
  2. The proposed development would, by reason of its excessive scale, inappropriate siting and the inadequate existing and proposed landscape screening, result in significant harm to the local landscape character and visual environment, including cumulative effects. The proposed development would therefore not represent high quality design which is sensitive to local landscape character in conflict with policies HQ1, EE5 and CC2 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan (2021) and sections 12 and 15 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2024).
  3. The proposal fails to make adequate provision to safely accommodate construction traffic at the access off Greenfield Road and at Sampshill Road and, if permitted, would lead to conditions of danger and inconvenience to users of the highway and those accessing the site in conflict with policy T2 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan and section 9 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2024).
  4. The proposal has not been supported by up to date, comprehensive ecological surveys undertaken in accordance with industry guidelines and standards to rule out impact to protected species and their habitats. Further, due to inconsistencies between the Landscape Strategy and Site Layout (which would likely render proposed landscape retention and enhancements unfeasible), as well as insufficient baseline information, the proposed BNG strategy cannot be confirmed as being achievable with the trading rules met. The proposal is therefore in conflict with policies EE2 and EE3 of the Central Bedfordshire Local Plan and section 15 of the National Planning Policy Framework (2024).

From the council's decision notice.

Application details

Application type
Full Application
Scale / size
Large
Parish
Westoning

Planning application dates

Date validated
23 June 2025
Consultation expiry
31 December 2025
Consultation start
23 June 2025
Consultation end
31 December 2025
Target decision date
22 September 2025

Applicant and agent

Agent address
Part 4th Floor Whitehall Quay II Leeds LS1 4HR

Planning decision

Statutory period
91 days

Additional information

Documents
128

Site constraints

Checking the site
2/3
Council recordsAppealsFlood risk

Designations at the address point. Ones next to the site may also apply.

  • Flood zone 1: Low probability (rivers and sea)

Possibly incomplete for this council: tree preservation orders.

Also checked, none recorded (23)

flood storage areas, conservation areas, listed buildings, Article 4 directions, green belt, scheduled monuments, World Heritage Sites, World Heritage Site buffer zones, registered parks and gardens, registered battlefields, Heritage at Risk entries, nutrient neutrality catchments, national parks, National Landscapes, SSSIs, Special Areas of Conservation, Special Protection Areas, Ramsar sites, ancient woodland, national nature reserves, local nature reserves, heritage coasts and brownfield registers.

A guide only, from official open data; it is not a planning search. Flood zones cover rivers and sea, not surface water.

Data © Crown copyright and others · sources and licences

Contains public sector information from planning.data.gov.uk (MHCLG and local planning authorities), licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0. © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Historic England 2026. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026. The Historic England GIS Data contained in this material was obtained on 2026-11-03. The most publicly available up to date Historic England GIS Data can be obtained from HistoricEngland.org.uk.

© Natural England copyright. Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

© Environment Agency copyright and/or database right 2026. All rights reserved. Flood Map for Planning, Open Government Licence v3.0.

Contains Ordnance Survey data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v.3.0. Contains OS data © Crown copyright and database right 2026.

Source: Central Bedfordshire

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