The SoS recovered the appeal in August last year after Cheshire West and Chester Council failed to determine the application within the prescribed period.
Pickles allowed the appeal (79-page / 532KB PDF) and granted planning permission to the scheme despite a recommendation by his appointed Planning Inspector that the appeal should be dismissed.
The SoS said in his report that he agreed with the Inspector that the proposed development on green field land would conflict with the intentions of the Council's Local Plan regarding the location of new housing development.
However, he also agreed that the settlement boundaries in the plan were in "urgent need of comprehensive review" and that "if adequate levels of development are to be catered for, now and in the future, the planned release of greenfield land appears inevitable". He said that this weighed "heavily" against the conflict with the Local Plan.
Pickles said that he did not agree with the Inspector's concerns about whether the number of houses in the scheme could be accommodated without "serious harm to the character and appearance of the area". Any potential harm in this respect could be avoided through the imposition of a condition, he said.
The SoS noted that the Council's 2.3 year housing land supply was in "serious deficit" in relation to the five year requirement under the National Planning Policy Framework. He said that the scheme would contribute in a "small but significant way to the satisfaction of overall identified housing need at the present time". He also said that the provision of 30% affordable housing was a significant benefit to which he attached significant weight.
The SoS concluded that, although he had found some drawbacks to the scheme, the benefits that the development would provide were sufficient to outweigh the conflict with the development plan.
