American electric vehicle giants, Tesla, have had a second retrospective planning application for a parking area at an Abbots hotel rejected by Three Rivers District Council (TRDC).
Tesla’s application was to add a 16-bay parking area to provide electric vehicle charging points outside Hunton Park hotel, off Essex Lane.
The proposed car park, which is adjacent to the hotel’s overflow car park, was already completed in March 2019 without the needed permission, and the first retrospective planning application was sent in July that year and rejected in November.
TRDC said the development “causes harm to the significance of the Grade II listed hotel” and that the car park and charging points would be harmful to the site’s green belt land.
An appeal against the TRDC’s 2019 decision was dismissed by the government’s Planning Inspectorate, leading Tesla to submit a second application this year.
Changes in this application included that now only 12 of the 16 car park spaces would be solely for Tesla drivers, rather than all of them.
However, this wasn’t enough to sway TRDC or nearby residents who sent in letters of objection prior to the decision.
One objection from a nearby resident whose home overlooks the car park described the erection of two-metre-high metal superchargers on the site as “hideous”.
While Tesla’s car park has already been erected, their electric chargers have yet to be installed.
If Tesla don’t successfully appeal the decision, TRDC can issue an enforcement notice which requires Tesla revert the car park to its original state.
Photo credit: GarnamUK
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