Agenda item

Two storey, 5-bed, detached dwelling with habitable roofspace involving demolition of existing dwelling.

Deferred from North Committee 6^th March 2014

Recommendation: Approval

Two storey, 5-bed, detached dwelling with habitable roofspace involving demolition of existing dwelling.

At the start of the item, the Chairman provided an overview of the site visit which had recently taken place.

Officers introduced the report and highlighted the changes as set out in the addendum.

In discussing the item, the Committee noted the size of the proposal in relation to the application site. The Committee also raised a number of concerns which included the proximity of the proposal to neighbours, the arboreal considerations and the impact of the design on the street scene.

In response, Officers confirmed that the character and design of the proposal was subjective. It was noted that the design did incorporate a degree of screening and Officers' views were that it was not harmful to the conservation area. In relation to the Committee's concerns about privacy, Officers confirmed that some measurements did breach the Local Authorities guidance concerning the 21 metre rule and, if necessary, some of the windows to habitable rooms could be conditioned to incorporate obscure glazing.

Turning to the size of the application site, the Committee noted that some of the trees would overhang the property.

On balance, the Committee agreed that the Officer recommendation of approval should be overturned and the application refused on the grounds of: privacy, bulk and dominance, the appearance of the street scene and the impact of trees.

On being put to the vote, it was moved, seconded and agreed that the application be overturned and refused.

Resolved -

Member Overturn - that the application be Refused for the following reasons:

The proposed development by reason of its siting, design and positioning of habitable windows would result in a material and unacceptable loss of privacy to the residential property at no.3 Copse Wood Way and provide inadequate levels of privacy for the future occupiers of the development which would be detrimental to the residential amenity of its occupiers.  The proposal would therefore be contrary to Policy BE24 of the Hillingdon Local Plan Part 2 - Saved Policies UDP (November 2012) and the adopted Residential Layouts SPD.

The proposed development by reason of its size, bulk, design and proximity to 3 Copse Wood Way, would result in a overly dominant, visually intrusive and un-neighbourly form of development. Therefore the proposal would be contrary to Policies BE20 and BE21 of the Hillingdon Local Plan: Part Two - Saved UDP Policies (November 2012) and the adopted Supplementary Planning Document HDAS: Residential Layouts.

The proposed development by reason of its siting, size, scale, bulk, and layout would result in a incongruous and intrusive form of development that would be detrimental to the character, appearance and the visual amenities of the street scene and the wider Copsewood Estate Area of Special Local Character. It would therefore be contrary to Policy BE1 of the Hillingdon Local Plan: Part One - Strategic Policies (November 2012), Policies BE5, BE13 and BE19 of the Hillingdon Local Plan: Part Two - Saved UDP Policies (November 2012), Policies 3.5 and 7.4 of the London Plan (2011) and the adopted Supplementary Planning Document HDAS: Residential Layouts.

Deferred from North Committee 6^th March 2014