(BLOG) - Environmental: CASEBOOK: Commercial and Industrial - Diving centre accepted at green belt lake.(Brief Article).

A proposal for permanent use of lakeside land in Berkshire as a scuba diving training centre has been allowed, although various structures and additional car parking were found to represent inappropriate development that adversely affected the openness of the metropolitan green belt.

After the expiry of a temporary permission, the appellants sought to use the site permanently for diving training, to retain toilets, a wooden building and various containers and to increase parking provision from 25 spaces to 110. The inspector agreed that the use of the land as a diving centre was appropriate in the green belt, but felt that the excessive scale of the buildings was not essential to the use and undermined the openness of the area.

He considered that other objections, such as harm to residential amenity, flood risk and impact on wildlife, added to the case against the scheme.

He granted permission to use the land as a diving training centre and to retain the two existing containers and two toilets, but required the latter to be removed from the site within two years as 'inharmonious' features that were not suitable for permanent retention.

DCS No: 29397559; Inspector: Phil Grainger; Written representations.

Source Citation:"CASEBOOK: Commercial and Industrial - Diving centre accepted at green belt lake." Planning (UK) (Feb 28, 2003): 21. General OneFile. Gale. Alachua County Library District. 15 Sept. 2009
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