Adur developers told to stop submitting 'unrealistic' computer generated imagery

Adur District Council will no longer accept computer generated imagery (CGI) from developers if it does not accurately represent trees and plants – something the council says can ‘bring the credibility of the planning system into dispute’.

The council’s Planning Committee will discuss several procedural changes at its meeting on Monday September 5.

It follows an incident where a developer felled 36 trees in Shoreham, despite telling the planning committee that they would be kept.

It later transpired that the developer did have permission to remove the trees, but this was permitted after the original planning application, meaning that the committee was not consulted.

This caught the attention of Shoreham councillor Jeremy Gardner (Lab, St Mary’s) and executive member for regeneration Steve Neocleous (Con, Churchill) requested a report into the incident.

The report, written by the council’s director for the economy, highlights several examples where developers have not stuck to their landscaping plans or CGI.

It reads: “Certain developments have been approved with various supporting images indicating the retention of existing trees and significant new planting, only to find that such planting is not delivered when the development is implemented.”

The report says that this ‘brings the credibility of the planning system into dispute’ and can sometimes be down to CGI which gives ‘unrealistic impressions’.

Such supporting evidence is being used by developers to ‘sell their schemes to the planning committee and the local community’, according to the report.

The committee is now being asked to approve a number of changes to prevent this going forwards.

This includes asking developers to remove proposed planting from CGI, to prevent details of a scheme from being ‘screened’.

Planning officers will also ask developers for information about services surrounding the site so they can check if proposed tree planting and landscaping is physically possible.

Although this does not prevent developers from removing trees indefinitely, planning officers hope the changes will encourage them to maintain and plant trees if they previously committed to doing so.