The Cutwell appeal decision is very good news for everyone opposing the Miller Homes scheme at Longfurlong Lane. It provides a recent, Tetbury-specific Planning Inspectorate ruling confirming that housing proposals on the settlement edge within the Cotswolds National Landscape can be refused — even when the Council has a serious housing land supply shortfall.
In the Cutwell case, the Inspector dismissed an appeal for just two houses, concluding that development would cause an unacceptable loss of openness and an “urbanising” effect, harming the rural transition between Tetbury and surrounding countryside. Importantly, the Inspector gave significant weight to the statutory duty to conserve and enhance the National Landscape and confirmed that such harm can outweigh housing supply pressures.
This decision strengthens our campaign because it directly undermines the argument Miller Homes are likely to rely on: that the housing shortfall means development must proceed. Cutwell shows that is not the case where the proposal would damage the character, setting and landscape quality of Tetbury’s countryside edge.
Miller Homes’ EIA Scoping Report confirms that their proposed development of up to 130 homes would extend Tetbury further into open countryside south of Longfurlong Lane, with new roads, lighting, parking, gardens and infrastructure — exactly the kind of large-scale suburbanisation that the Cutwell Inspector found unacceptable on a far smaller site.
The Cutwell decision gives local residents and councillors a strong and credible planning precedent: if two houses were refused because of landscape harm, then 130 houses on an even larger settlement-edge site should face very serious scrutiny.
This is a powerful opportunity for our community to argue that Tetbury’s southern greenfields should remain protected, and that the Cotswolds National Landscape must come first.