Demolition of existing building and erection of 37 dwellings, together with a means of access from Eastbury Road

The committee received the report of the Head of Development Management, including the relevant planning history of the site and details of the responses to the application. 

The Principal Planning Officer introduced the report explaining that the application was for the demolition of the existing building and erection of 37 dwellings, together with a means of access from Eastbury Road, provision of associated parking for 33 cars, amenity space and landscaping.

Attention was drawn to the update sheet, which included some additional comments and an amendment to condition 3.

The Chair invited Rodney Salter, a local resident, to speak in opposition to the application.  Mr Salter expressed his concern about the development on four key grounds.  First, the overdevelopment of the site to establish a three/four storey building within an area of predominantly two storey suburban houses.  Second, the lack of adequate parking, which failed to take into account the likely demands of future residents and the need for visitor spaces.  Third, the flat roof design which was out of keeping with the surrounding area.  And fourth, the loss of trees and resultant overlooking to surrounding properties from the upper flats.

The Chair invited Steven Brown from Woolf Bond Planning, the agent, to speak in support of the application.  Mr Brown outlined the need for new homes in the borough and the collaborative work which had been undertaken with officers to put together a policy compliant development.

Considering the height of the proposed scheme, Mr Brown highlighted the mixed nature of buildings along the road and the support at government level for higher density developments to meet housing need.  Despite the concerns of local residents, this would not lead to overlooking.

The Chair invited Oxhey Ward Councillor Maggie Parker to speak to the committee.  Councillor Parker outlined the concerns of local residents about the excessive overdevelopment of the former public house.  The proposed scheme was out of keeping with the area and would dwarf neighbouring properties, leading to privacy concerns.

Councillor Parker maintained that too little consideration had been given to the impact on local services and surrounding roads, and to the parking needs of future residents.  She also questioned whether a full ecological survey of the site had been undertaken.

Responding to a query from the Chair, the Head of Development Management reminded members that they should consider the planning policy objective which was to make best use of the previously developed land.  The measure of whether this could be termed an overdevelopment was the council’s adopted policies on a range of criteria including, parking, amenity space and separation distances.  This scheme was deemed fully compliant by officers.

The Principal Planning Officer confirmed that ecological and arboricultural appraisals had been undertaken.

The Chair invited comments from the committee.

Some members of the committee considered that there were no solid reasons to turn down the application.  The proposed development was policy compliant, would meet the likely parking demands of flatted accommodation and would, most importantly, enable some families to move off the council’s housing waiting lists into more appropriate accommodation.

Other committee members, whilst acknowledging that the government had just trebled the council’s housing target from 260 to 800 a year, and with the understanding that this would require higher density developments in the town, were concerned about the scale and overbearing nature of the proposed scheme on this site.

They maintained that the surrounding area comprised predominantly two storey semi-detached houses and, even where there had been conversions to flats, these had been on a more domestic scale.  Although higher density developments had been agreed elsewhere in Watford, often on former industrial lands or in special policy areas, a three/four storey development in this location would significantly and unacceptably change the character of the area and trigger further similar developments along this stretch of Eastbury Road.

The Chair invited Councillor Sharpe to propose a motion to refuse the application. 

Councillor Sharpe proposed that the application be refused on the grounds that its height, scale and massing would adversely affect the character of the neighbouring residential area and as such was contrary to policy UD1 of the Watford Local Plan Core Strategy 2006-31.

RESOLVED –

that planning permission be refused on the grounds that its height, scale and massing would adversely affect the character of the neighbouring residential area and as such is contrary to policy UD1 of the Watford Local Plan Core Strategy 2006-31.