BCP Council (Bournemouth area): Matt Annen is pleased to share the news that planning permission has been granted for the erection of single and two storey extensions, internal alterations, replacement of a swimming pool and a comprehensive re-landscaping of grounds to an iconic house in Meyrick Park & Talbot Woods Conservation Area. The scheme was beautifully designed by Marlow Architects.
The existing house was made up of two parts – the original house is highlighted within the Council’s Conservation Area Appraisal as making a positive contribution to the street scene and wider conservation area. Notes from the Adopted appraisal stated it to be “a fine building dating from the 1920s and in isolation is considered to make a positive contribution to the conservation area”. However the later extension was classed as having a negative impact on the principle building largely due to an incongruous false mansard roof added in the 1970s that protrudes higher than the roof of the original house to which it connects.
There was protracted discussion between Matt and the Heritage team who objected to the application which became quite heated at times because Matt is a very passionate and persistent planner and felt that the Conservation Officer’s comments were unjustified (let’s leave it at that!).
Whilst the majority of the changes would be beneficial to the house in isolation and the major undisputed benefit to the conservation area would be the removal of the incongruent 1970s mansard roof, the Heritage team raised a concern that despite this positive, the current proposal would “meld the disparate 1935 extension and the earlier original house together”. This is not something that they supported as they believed that the visual distinction from, and the subservience between, the original house and extension should be retained.
As the officer commented in his report “The issues related to this are delicate and finely balanced” He acknowledged that house itself is not Listed, and concluded that on balance, while it is understood that juxtaposing contemporary solutions against original feature architecture is a viable solution to enabling the easy identification of components from disparate architectural periods (which is what the conservation officer wanted) in this case, to do so, risks repeating the anachronous harm that the 1970s
mansard brought with it. A modern solution to how to replace the roof and re-style the building risks
further harm.
So in siding with Matt and over-ruling their own conservation officer’s objection the planning officer concluded: “In this situation, the solutions as proposed are considered sufficient to satisfy the tests
of the NPPF and would sufficiently enhance the quality and aesthetic of the conservation area
character the site contributes on this visible corner”. The application was approved a couple of weeks ago much to the homeowner’s delight.
If you are looking for a firm of passionate and persistent planners who are not affraid to go toe to toe with planning officer’s or internal consultees, give us a call on 01202 585524, or email info@puretownplanning.co.uk and if we feel the merits of the proposal are justified we can fight your corner too.