Planning appeal for new home near Hope dismissed despite family care argument
A planning appeal to build a new three-bedroom bungalow in the garden of a house near Hope has been dismissed, despite arguments that the dwelling was needed to care for a vulnerable family member with serious health conditions.
The applicant sought to build the single-storey detached house in the grounds of Haledon House on Gresford Road, on the outskirts of Hope.
Flintshire County Council refused the application in March 2025, and an inspector appointed by the Welsh Ministers dismissed the subsequent appeal on 4 June.
The inspector acknowledged that medical professionals supported the case for the dwelling, which was argued to be needed for the appellant’s sister, a vulnerable adult whose care arrangements were central to the appeal.
However, the council’s housing team had assessed Haledon House itself as suitable to meet the sister’s needs, and the inspector found the proposed dwelling — with three bedrooms, three bathrooms and a double garage, appeared to go beyond what was essential.
The inspector also said it had not been shown that a suitably designed annex to the existing house could not meet the same needs.
The site lies in open countryside outside Hope’s settlement boundary, where Flintshire’s planning rules place strict limits on new housing.
The inspector found the proposal conflicted with those rules and with national planning policy for Wales, and that no legal mechanism had been put in place to ensure the dwelling would remain as local needs housing in perpetuity.
On the appearance of the proposed building, the inspector said its suburban style design would be “completely at odds with the rural character of the area.”
Highway safety was also a concern, with the inspector noting that visibility from the access to the north-west was restricted by trees and hedges outside the appellant’s control, and that no vehicle speed survey had been submitted to demonstrate safe sightlines could be achieved.
The inspector further found that the site is in the catchment of Hope’s wastewater treatment works, which discharges to the River Dee and Bala Lake Special Area of Conservation — a protected wildlife site that is already failing on water quality grounds.
Welsh Water had advised in December 2024 that the treatment works lacked capacity for additional foul water flows from the development, and the inspector said nothing had been put before him to show the required improvement works had been carried out.
The appellant had cited human rights law, arguing that refusing the dwelling would interfere with the family’s right to private and family life and discriminate on grounds of disability.
The inspector considered those arguments but found the impact of dismissing the appeal to be limited, given that the existing house had been assessed as suitable and care at that property had not been ruled out by medical professionals.
On the proposal’s energy-efficient Passive House design, the inspector said: “A Passive House could be built anywhere and does not justify overturning the strict control over new housing in the countryside.”
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