Plans to build a pair of office blocks at a business park on the edge of a Derbyshire village which would have brought up to 240 jobs to the area have been turned down.
At the start of this year Bowler Adams LLP, which owns Badger Farm Business Park, in Willowpit Lane, on the outskirts of Hilton, applied to South Derbyshire District Council to build the two-storey office buildings at the site.
The buildings would have been identical, each offering almost 2,000 sq metres of office space, and designed to match existing commercial buildings at the former farm site.
But the district council has now decided to refuse permission for the development, arguing that the scale of the development is out of step with its rural location.
It also believes that there are more suitable sites for such a development in more urban areas.
In the original planning application, Bowler Adams said that it wanted the new buildings because it needed extra space to meet demand.
Badger Farm Business Park is already home to a number of businesses. Last year, national multi-technical services provider SPIE UK moved out of Derby to a new 4,500 sq ft office at Badger Farm.
Bowler Adams started developing the land following the sale of John Bowler Eggs. Now named Bowler Eggs, the firm rents an 8,000 sq ft building at Badger Farm along with another company, Noble Energy (formerly Bowler Energy).
Refusing permission for the office buildings, the district council said: “The application fails to demonstrate that a flexible approach to the assessment of alternative sites has been adopted, with little assessment for the scope of disaggregating the development.
“It is apparent that there are sequentially preferable town centre and edge of centre sites, which are available and suitable. In addition, no sound or compelling business case has been provided to justify the proposed development.
“The existing site provides the impression of an organic scheme of farm diversification, on a relatively low key scale.
“The proposal would result in a significant scale of development in this rural area, which would result in the urbanisation of the countryside detrimentally impacting on the character of the area and landscape though a large scale commercial development at odds with the character of the area.
“The development of the site would result in a form of development which would dominate the landscape and result in significant change in the character of the area to its detriment.”
