What constitutes ‘very special circumstances’ in the green belt?

A PINs inspector has allowed plans to make an all-weather football training dome at Watford FC permanent. The training grounds sit in Hertsmere Borough Council and within the Green Belt.

The dome received planning permission for temporary use in 2018, for use during autumn/winter months (October – April) for a period of 5 years. The temporary permission expired in 2023, and the club applied for planning permission to make the dome permanent. The council rejected the application due to the impacts on the openness of the Green Belt. The club appealed the refusal that has now been overturned.  

In the appeal decision, the inspector agreed with the council that the dome, sitting at 22m high, negatively impacted the openness of the green belt. He however found that the dome did not encroach on the countryside (one of the main purposes of the Green Belt is to restrict urban sprawl) as the dome would be sitting amongst existing, although low profiled, sports grounds and facilities.  

The inspector found that the plans included improvements to the biodiversity and landscaping on the site which includes a new nature trail and landscaping to mitigate the appearance of the dome.

The main crux of the justification for the ‘very special circumstances’ needed to override the protection of the Green Belt was the benefit for the local community. The inspector gave significant weight to the already established and measurable benefits to the number of local groups using the covered football grounds.

Between 2019 and 2024, it was calculated that 80,717 participant visits and 1,204 sessions took place in the dome. The dome is also used by community groups free of charge, saving local groups around £150 per hour that would be charged in other venues.

Groups using the pitch include those with access challenges, including Fighting Fit Football Club (FFFC) who run weekly groups for people with Parkinson’s, alongside other groups for visually impaired and deaf player. These groups uniquely benefit from the covered pitch and the safe environment provided from the weather-protection. The pitches are also safe for players in wheelchairs, as the flooring is particularly suited to their use and the pitch has adequate space for access. The inspector also highlighted the range of ages and ethnic backgrounds of those benefitting from the community use of the covered pitches.

All of the community benefits combined convinced the inspector that the community benefit outweighed the visual impact on the openness of the Green Belt. This decision is helpful for sports clubs looking to extend their all weather provision but face the challenge of being located in the Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land.  It is a further demonstration of the weight that should be added to community benefits.

Case law argues community benefits should be a planning concern, notably the “R (on the application of Wright) (Respondent) v Resilient Energy Severndale Ltd and Forest of Dean District Council (Appellants)” case for a wind turbine run by a community benefit society. In this case it was found that the proposed community benefit of the turbines was not material, as it did not affect the use of the land.

At which point do community benefits affect the land use and become a material planning concern?

It is interesting that in this case community benefits were awarded so much weight in the decision in order to demonstrate ‘very special circumstances’. The appeal decision is a useful test of Very Special Circumstances and helpful for sports clubs looking to expand their facilities in the Green Belt or Metropolitan Open Land. Time will tell whether there will be more cases in which the community benefits will hold significantly more weight in planning decisions or if the proposed changes to the Green Belt set out in the draft NPPF will allow for more development which may not have otherwise been viewed as ‘very special circumstances’.

WEA Planning are currently advising sports clubs on all-weather provision and would be happy to respond to your query today.