Land South Of Town Farm Main Road Woodham Ferrers Chelmsford Data via plota.co.uk

26/00147/FUL Refused

Proposal

Retrospective application for change of use of land to storage (Use Class B8) Data via plota.co.uk

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View original council record ↗Last checked 24 Aug 2026, 08:51

Application progress

✓

Received

12 Feb 2026

✗

Refused

9 Apr 2026

Appeal

Not lodged

Refused on 9 Apr 2026 · Last checked 6 Jul 2026

Documents

View the documents on the council's website ↗

Site constraints 2

Agricultural land, grade 3b

Not best and most versatile land (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Source: the Predictive Agricultural Land Classification Map (Defra and Natural England, 2025; the Welsh Government's Predictive ALC Map 2 in Wales), a model rather than a site survey. Natural England's Provisional ALC map (1:250,000, 1970s) agrees.

Where development of farmland is needed, policy prefers poorer land over the best and most versatile (grades 1, 2 and 3a). Three sources: Natural England's post-1988 field surveys, which are definitive where they exist; the Defra predictive map for England (2025) and the Welsh Government predictive map, modelled from the soil map with 3a and 3b split; and the 1970s provisional map, which planners and other services still show, coarser and with grade 3 undivided. Where the provisional and predicted grades disagree, treat the predicted grade as the current estimate and expect an application to carry its own survey.

Also on the record

SSSI about 470 m away: Thrift Wood, Woodham Ferrers SSSI.

Not affected

Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · Not green belt · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 6 October 2026. The pin for this application is the centre of its postcode rather than the building, so distances to nearby designations are measured from the postcode and can be out by the width of the postcode area. Historic England, the Environment Agency, Natural England and council datasets, Open Government Licence. A boundary can run through a site and the council holds the definitive record: confirm with the council before relying on this.

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Important details

Council: Chelmsford
Postcode: CM3 4HN
Received: 12 Feb 2026
Validated: 12 Feb 2026
Target decision: 9 Apr 2026
Decision date: 9 Apr 2026

How this decision compares

Decided in 56 days from validation, about the council's usual 56 days. Refused, as 31% of changes of use here are.

This one56d

Council56d

UK56d

57%decided within 8 weeks

69%approved

68decided in the last year

Plota live figures for changes of use decided by Chelmsford in the last twelve months, from validation. Chelmsford decision record →

Consultation & key dates

Alt. reference: PP-14667012
Planning Portal ref: PP-14667012
Comments by: 20 Mar 2026

Historical activity at this location

2 nearby applications on record - archival context, not part of the live application.

Within ~100m

Nearby activity

2020 Approved

Nurseries Main Road Bicknacre Chelmsford Essex CM3 4HN

Proposed Cafe Building including kitchen and wc.

20/00876/FUL 10 Aug 2020

2020 Approved

Nurseries Main Road Bicknacre Chelmsford Essex CM3 4HN

Proposed Cafe Building including kitchen and wc.

20/00876/FUL 10 Aug 2020

Chelmsford

Planning Authority Score

7.4/10

Good

#45 of 296 councils

Relevant to this application:

Change of use

Chelmsford is one of the fastest councils in England for householder decisions, ranking #23 out of 296. Only 21% of applications have the time limit extended, well below the 41% national average - the council usually decides on time. Householder applications are slightly more likely to be approved here (90%) than the national average (90%).

Among the fastest councils in England

for householder decisions

These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance

Chelmsford decision statistics

Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026

87%

Overall approval rate

Above avg (87%) #167 of 296

90%

Householder approved

Above avg (90%) #188 of 296

84%

Decided in 8 weeks

Above avg (63%) #23 of 296

21%

Extended time limit

Below avg (41%) #19 of 296

76%

Minor dwellings approved

164 decided (1-9 homes)

88%

Major dwellings approved

8 decided (10+ homes)

79%

Change of use approved

52 decided

1,304

Total decisions

168 refused in the year to March 2026