My question to you (since I can't find the text of either the original PPG3 or the new one) is did they keep the hospital exemption whilst dropping the airfield one, or did they drop both ?
Their claim that they have nothing against airfields would be much more suspect if they had kept the hospital example.
Both the old PPG3 and the new PPS3 can be downloaded from the
Planning Policy Statement 3: Housing page at the Communities and Local Government website.
The old PPG3 said (on
this page)
The curtilage is defined as the area of land attached to a building. All of the land within the curtilage of the site (as defined above) will also be defined as previously-developed.
However, this does not mean that the whole area of the curtilage should therefore be redeveloped. For example, where the footprint of a building only occupies a proportion of a site of which the remainder is open land (such as at an airfield or a hospital) the whole site should not normally be developed to the boundary of the curtilage. The local planning authority should make a judgement about site layout in this context, bearing in mind other planning considerations, such as policies for the protection of open space and playing fields or development in the countryside, how the site relates to the surrounding area, and requirements for on-site open space, buffer strips, landscaped areas, etc.
Can't find any reference to either an airfield or a hospital in the new PPS3.
RC