In a not-unexpected move, Sunbury BESS Limited has decided to appeal last month’s planning application refusal to the Secretary of State. It has been referred to the national Planning Inspectorate under the Written Representations procedure. With this type of appeal, an Inspector considers written evidence from the appellant, the Local Planning Authority and anyone else who has an interest in the appeal. The site is also likely to be visited, but there will not be the formal Hearing or Inquiry that happens with other types of appeal.

Spelthorne BC Planning has sent notifications to interested parties by both letter and email; these include an invitation to comment on the appeal directly to the Planning Inspectorate, either by letter or online, by no later than 13 November. Instructions for doing this are included on the Spelthorne Planning website for the application, 24/01112/FUL, within the ‘Appeal – Start letter’ on the documents list, which also includes the appellant’s Statement of Case and other related information. We encourage any residents with strong views on this application to submit those views to the Inspectorate.

We at LOSRA are continuing to liaise with the Charlton Village and Shepperton Residents’ Associations. This is to ensure that together we can comprehensively convince the appointed Planning Inspector that no ‘Very Special Circumstances’ do exist to outweigh the harm caused by the application being unquestionably defined as inappropriate development on Green Belt land, and that the Appeal should therefore not be allowed.