A planning application for 195 new homes at Sinah Lane, Hayling Island, has been lodged with the Planning Inspectorate for non-determination.
The developers, Barratt Homes, have lodged an appeal stating the statutory period in which to decide and agree on the planning application has not been met by Havant Borough Council.
The Development Management Committee (DMC) was due to consider the application on 26 March 2020, but the meeting had to be cancelled because of the coronavirus lockdown.
The application appeal, which includes the change of use of land from agricultural to a Wader and Brent Geese refuge area, as well as new homes with open space, a pumping station, sub-station and new access road, is yet to be decided as valid by the Inspectorate.
Councillor Tim Pike, Deputy Leader and Cabinet lead for Planning at Havant Borough Council, said: “Councillors and officers had been working towards holding our first virtual DMC to determine this application. I was therefore disappointed with the decision of the developer to take this to the inspectorate. We were gearing up for this by running ‘practice’ committees to ensure everything was going to work in the actual digital meeting.
“Now an appeal has been lodged, the council can no longer determine the application. However, the DMC will be asked in due course what its decision would have been, if it were able to have determined the application. Once the Planning Inspectorate makes the appeal valid, the normal publicity will take place and the public will be invited to send views directly to the Inspectorate.”
View the application for Sinah Lane, Hayling Island (APP/18/00724) www.havant.gov.uk