Secretary of State dismisses recovered appeal for major development in Green Belt
By a Decision Letter of 06 June 2025, the Secretary of State has dismissed a recovered appeal by Greystoke Land Ltd made against the decision of the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead to refuse planning permission for a major new film and television studio within the Green Belt, near the village of Holyport.
The Secretary of State’s decision was in accordance with Inspector Mike Worden’s recommendation.
The Secretary of State considered that the Proposal:
- would “dramatically alter the landscape”, giving rise to “very substantial harm to landscape character” which carried substantial weight (DL/12-15).
- would cause less than substantial harm to the significance of the nearby conservation area and Grade-II listed building, but (departing from her Inspector’s view), considered that the harm to the designated heritage assets did not justify a finding that the heritage balance is unfavourable (DL/16-18).
- would result in the irreversible loss of BMV agricultural land, carrying moderate weight (DL/19).
- would not be in a sustainable location for the use proposed, and the unsustainable location and lack of sustainable transport provision collectively attracted significant weight (DL/20-22).
A major component of the case concerned the need for a state-of-the-art film studio. The Secretary of State agreed with her Inspector’s assessment that the evidence on need, demand and supply provided “quite a confusing pattern”, but that the evidence indicated that “there is likely to be sufficient capacity within existing studio space and commitments for the immediate future”. Overall, neither the Secretary of State nor the Inspector were persuaded that a clear and convincing need case had been demonstrated, and did not assign weight to that matter (DL/23-26).
On the Green Belt, the Secretary of State concluded that the appeal site constituted Grey Belt land and concluded that the development would not fundamentally undermine the purposes of the remaining Green Belt across the whole local plan area. However, given that the site is not in a sustainable location and there is no demonstrable unmet need for the proposal, the criteria in para. 155(b) and (c) of the Framework were not met. The Proposal should be regarded as inappropriate development in the Green Belt and should not be approved except in Very Special Circumstances (DL/30-40).
Overall, the Secretary of State considered that the potential harm to the Green Belt through inappropriateness, harm to openness and harm to purpose c), and any other harm resulting from the Proposal is not clearly outweighed by other considerations and therefore there are no VSCs which would justify the development in the Green Belt (DL/51). The appeal was dismissed and planning permission refused (DL/53).
The full decision letter can be found here. It is thought that this is the first time that the Secretary of State has dismissed a recovered appeal since last year’s General Election: Called-In Decisions and Recovered Appeals.
The Appeal received widespread national media coverage: The Times, BBC, Daily Mail, The Guardian.
Richard Ground KC and Jack Barber represented the successful Local Planning Authority, the Royal Borough of Windsor and Maidenhead, at the public inquiry which ran from 19-23 and 26-27 November 2024. Both help developers, local authorities and individuals resolve issues relating to building and maintaining sustainable communities and are frequently engaged in high-profile and complex planning inquiries.
