This is disappointing and a desperate situation for this young guy and his family. However, emotive though the matter is, it will have been decided purely in line with the Council’s policies on land use.
Although the press report doesn’t make this too clear, it looks like the situation is fairly rural and the Council’s policies will exist to try and preserve this as far as possible.
Whilst not wishing to minimise the sacrifice this guy and his family have made, and will continue to make, it should be borne in mind that planning regulations must treat everyone fairly. There are many situations where families might like to make a special case for building a house where otherwise one would not be considered. We may think of the parents of a special needs child who wish to provide for an independent life as it grows older. Alternatively we may think of children with elderly parents who may feel better if they lived closer as their years advanced. Furthermore, there are many people incapacitated by road or industrial accidents, all of whom would love to make a special case for homes where ones would otherwise not be permitted. Added to that there are just simple chancers, and I say that mindful of the original subject of this post, Marine Townsend, whom I mean absolutely no ill will towards by that comment. Unfortunately planning history is littered is littered with just such chancers who, having been able to make a plausible case for a dream home in the countryside, promptly sell it on, sometimes without even having built it, just merely selling the plot of land with its planning consent.
Anyway, that’s my tuppence worth. As I say, a desperately sad situation and my comments in no way are intended to detract for the situation the Marine and his family are in. I speak also as someone who from my early teens to late twenties had a large responsibility (along with my widowed Mother) for a kid brother left paraplegic due to medical negligence.
Feel free to flame me if you wish