PLANS to build a house on an area of Green Belt land have been refused.

John Hodgson had submitted the application to develop the site, off Thornton Road between Queensbury and West Scholes. The plans said the site had suffered from fly tipping, and a wall on the the site showed that the land had previously been developed.

Planning officers said the presence of a wall was not enough to class the site as having previously been developed. They refused the application for being inappropriate Green Belt development.

The application said: "The site has some evidence of previous use, although the exact nature cannot be established.

"There are numerous buildings in close proximity, and the land is not really suitable for any other use.

"The site has been subject to fly tipping, and the development of the site would eradicate this issue."

To build on Green Belt land, developers need to show that there are "exceptional circumstances" that would overcome the harm of building on a protected site.

If the site had previously been developed it would make it easier to gain planning permission for a Green Belt site.

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Planning guidance says that to be classed as previously developed land: "The land must have been previously occupied by a permanent structure, including the curtilage of the developed land and associated fixed infrastructure."

Referring to the claim that the wall on the site showed the site had previously been developed, planning officers said: "The wall on the site is not considered to meet the requirements of the site being classed as 'previously developed land.'

"Even if the wall had at one time been part of a larger structure, now it has blended into the landscape to such a degree which it is not actually visible unless it is sought out."