Listed Building Triumph: £100k Saved in Gloucestershire Appeal Win

Last week, we secured a significant planning and Listed Building appeal win in Frampton on Severn, Gloucestershire — saving our clients, by our estimate, £100,000.

Our clients, a couple with a young child, approached us after receiving an enforcement notice from the council relating to a recent extension to their Grade II Listed home: a late-1800s former post office that had been divided into two houses. The notice required them to effectively demolish the extension, undo internal alterations, and rebuild it.

The clients had previously secured planning and Listed Building consent for the extension but had (wrongly) assumed that what they saw as minor deviations from the approved drawings would be acceptable. Once the Council became aware of the changes, it adopted a hard-line approach in its enforcement notice—effectively demanding that the entire extension be torn down and rebuilt, at a cost potentially reaching tens of thousands of pounds.

Gail Collins, one of our Planning Directors, led the team alongside Associate Director Seb Kouyoumjian and heritage specialist Cathy Tuck of Keystone Heritage. Together, we conducted a forensic analysis of the Council’s claims, comparing them with photographs and records.

We successfully rebutted all assertions that our clients had demolished parts of the historic building. We also demonstrated that the as-built extension, while differing from the approved plans, caused no harm to the historic structure, was of exceptional quality, and had no negative impact on neighbouring properties.

Following a site visit by the Planning Inspector, attended by both us and Council representatives, the Inspector sided firmly and unequivocally with our argument—allowing the appeal and quashing the enforcement notice.

Our clients are understandably delighted, now safe from the threat of having to demolish or alter a large part of their home.

You can read the full appeal decision on the Planning Inspectorate website.