Office conversion at Foxlease Cottages, Clay Hill, Lyndhurst
Summary of planning committee decision
Decided by New Forest Park Planning Committee on 21 Jul 2026.
The site
The site contains three dwellings in historic parkland, shares access with a school, lies partly within protected nature designations and is in open countryside.
“The application site (approximately 0.3 hectares in size) comprises a detached 1980’s bungalow (Link Cottage) which is a replacement of a mid-19th century lodge house, along with Numbers 1 and 2 Foxlease Cottages (a pair of semi-detached dwellings) which are Grade II* curtilage listed by virtue of their association with the Grade II* listed Foxlease House.”
“The three dwellings within the application site share a single point of access (a private unmade track) which runs of the A337. This access also serves Coxlease School which lies to the south. This access (and the southern part of the site lies within the New Forest Site of Special Scientific Interest (SSSI), Special Area of Conservation (SAC), Special Protection Area (SPA) and Ramsar designations.”
Officer report
Consultation responses
The parish council recommended refusal, while highways, trees, conservation and Natural England raised no objections or concerns.
“Lyndhurst Parish Council: Recommend refusal:”
“Hampshire County Council (Highways Authority): No objections raised:”
Officer report
Who spoke
A parish council representative addressed members, while the chair, a councillor and the solicitor discussed the committee’s role and openness.
The decision
Planning permission was granted subject to conditions controlling the drawings, hours, parking, lighting, ecological measures and office use.
“Planning consent granted subject to conditions…”
“Unless otherwise agreed in writing by the National Park Authority, development shall only take place in accordance with the recommendations for ecological mitigation and enhancement which are set out in the ecological report hereby approved (Preliminary Ecological Appraisal, ABR Ecology 7 April 2026). The specified measures shall be implemented before the development is brought into use and shall be retained at the site for the lifetime of the approved development.”
Minutes
Sources
- New Forest Park Planning Committee minutes, 21 July 2026
- Agenda and papers (council website)
Source: Plota analysis of New Forest Park's committee minutes and officer report. Quotations are the council's own words; headings and summaries are Plota's.
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See the API →At the meeting
- Committee
- New Forest Park Planning Committee
- Council
- New Forest Park
- Date
- Tuesday 21 July 2026
- Recommendation
- Officers recommended approval
- Committee decided
- Approved
- Minutes
- The council's minutes
- Meeting
- Agenda and papers (council website)
- Application
- View application →
- All decisions
- New Forest Park committee decisions →
This committee's year
18 decisions in the 12 months to this meeting, 2 against officer advice.
Source: Plota analysis of the committee's minutes.