Land At (Os 7448 5213) Alfrick Pound Alfrick Data via plota.co.uk

M/25/01782/FUL - Full planning permission Approved

Proposal

Change of use from agricultural to equestrian, including demolition of existing agricultural building and erection of stable block, new access and creation of hardstanding. Data via plota.co.uk

View original council record ↗Last checked

Application progress

✓
Received
10 Nov 2025
✓
Approved
5 Jun 2026

Approved on 5 Jun 2026 · Committee · Last checked 8 Oct 2026

Planning committee

Decided by Malvern Hills Northern Area Planning Committee on 3 Jun 2026.

Approved unanimously

As officers recommended.

  • Officers advised approval because the revised scheme addressed the previous landscape concerns and could be managed without harming the National Landscape.
  • The parish council and six third parties raised concerns about the hedgerow, landscape, possible commercial use, pollution and highway safety.
  • Members unanimously approved the application and granted full planning permission.
Read how the committee decided The proposal, site history, officer assessment, objections, speakers, committee debate, vote and conditions. Includes the meeting recording

Source: Plota analysis of Malvern Hills's committee minutes of 3 Jun 2026.

Documents 40

All documents on the council site ↗

Site constraints 7

Malvern Hills National Landscape
Great weight to conserving the landscape; major development restricted.
Previously an area of outstanding natural beauty, which is still the designation in law. Since 2023 authorities must seek to further its purpose, not merely have regard to it.
Public footpath about 5 m away
Matters where it crosses or adjoins the site: obstructing a path without a diversion order is an offence, and work cannot start until the order is confirmed.
Compiled from highway authority data, not the legal definitive map. A few authorities have not published, so no path shown is not proof there is none.
Agricultural land, grade 2
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), which most planning maps still show, had this area as grade 3. The predicted grade is Defra's current estimate; only a site survey settles it.
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.
Habitat network: Network Enhancement Zone 1
Where habitat is joined up enough to work as a network. Context, not a constraint on its own.
Also on the record
SSSI about 241 m away: Leigh Brook Valley SSSI; Radon affected area, class 4; Priority habitat about 24 m away: Traditional orchard.
Not affected
Outside flood zones 2 and 3 · Not green belt · No scheduled monument at the site

Checked on 17 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, the British Geological Survey and UK Health Security Agency (radon, contains BGS materials © UKRI) 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.

Work with planning data?

Every application in Malvern Hills - and every UK council - as a live feed, an API, or a bulk CSV export.

About Plota's data service

Important details

Application type
Full planning permission
Received
10 Nov 2025
Validated
10 Nov 2025
Ward
Alfrick, Leigh & Rushwick Ward
Parish
Alfrick CP
Case officer
Show
Decision
Approval
Decision date
5 Jun 2026
Decision level
Committee
Applicant
Show
Agent
The Equestrian Planning Consultancy

How this decision compares

Decided in 207 days from validation, 148 days slower than Malvern Hills's median of 59 for full applications. Approved, as 81% of full applications here are.

49%decided within 8 weeks
81%approved
5%go to committee

Plota live figures for full applications decided by Malvern Hills in the last twelve months, from validation. Malvern Hills decision record →

Consultation & key dates

Consultation
14 Nov 2025
Comments by
28 Apr 2026
Committee
3 Jun 2026
Malvern Hills
Planning Authority Score
5.5/10
Average
#120 of 296 councils
Relevant to this application:
Change of use

Malvern Hills is faster than most councils at deciding householder applications, ranking #45 out of 296. Householder applications are slightly less likely to be approved here (87%) than the national average (90%).

Faster than most councils
for householder decisions
These figures are council-wide context, not a prediction for this application. View full council performance
Malvern Hills decision statistics
Based on MHCLG data, the year to March 2026
82%
Overall approval rate
Below avg (87%) #251 of 296
87%
Householder approved
Below avg (90%) #232 of 296
79%
Decided in 8 weeks
Above avg (63%) #45 of 296
37%
Extended time limit
Below avg (41%) #121 of 296
57%
Minor dwellings approved
148 decided (1-9 homes)
88%
Major dwellings approved
17 decided (10+ homes)
86%
Change of use approved
35 decided
744
Total decisions
131 refused in the year to March 2026