BCP Council (Bournemouth area): Matt is pleased to have recently secured consent for a backland development in Victoria Park, near Winton in Bournemouth. The scheme was designed by local firm Anders Roberts Cheer for mutual client; Addis Homes Group.
The scheme followed a previous refusal for a two storey back land dwelling which was turned down mainly on the grounds of the impact of the scale of the building on the surrounding character and neighbours.
In reducing the scale of this revised proposal down to a bungalow form, we felt this would successfully overcome the concerns raised on the previous scheme. Whilst the officer still did feel the proposal would have a minor impact on the loss of garden space, this time he did not consider that it would result in a significant adverse impact on the character and appearance of the area. The officer cited in his report that the Councils housing targets were becoming difficult to meet and the NPPF (2021) sets out a tilted balance to support more marginal proposals where housing can contribute to the Councils targets. Therefore he considered that the revised scheme was now acceptable and given the public benefit of providing one unit of accommodation this would outweigh the harm to the area identified.
Interestingly and perhaps useful for others who a considering a “one off” backland development for a single dwelling, the officer stated in his report that “although it is an isolated scheme it does not in my view obviously prevent the most efficient way of utilising neighbouring land for future development”.
If you have a development site which is proving tricky to unlock why not speak with a planning consultant for Pure Town Planning to see how we might help get things moving.