Reference number:
R14/2149
Site address:
Land rear of 16-32Deane Road, Hillmorton, Rugby. CV21 4NZ
Description:
Erection of 2no.dwellings (semi-detached) with detached garages and associated works.
Case Officer Name & Number:
Nisar Mogul. 01788 533688
Relevant Decisions
Use of land for erection of garage block - Approved 14/11/60
Use of land for block of garages or bungalow–Approved 26/3/63
Use of land for erection of house- Refused 19/11/65
Houses or bungalows - Refused 6/10/71
Erection of one detached bungalow- Refused 3/10/90
Technical Consultations
WCC Highways -No objections subject to conditions and informatives
WCC Ecology -No objections subject to conditions.
Tree Officer -No objections subject to a condition.
Environmental Health-No objections subject to conditions and informatives.
Works Services-No objections
Severn Trent Water-No response.
Warwickshire Fire and Rescue-No response.
Third Party Consultations
Neighbours – 3 letters of objection recd – No safe road access due to vehicle and foot access for houses 16-32 & 34-48 Deane Road. Access is on blind corner. Emergency services would not be able to reach, increased traffic on Deane Road, would lead to loss of privacy on 16-32 Deane Road. Will overlook the cemetery. Previous refusal for two bungalows due to traffic congestion and unsuitable access, inconvenience due to disturbance during connections of mains services. Loss of light, Health and safety issues for removal of household waste, destruction of character of the area, loss of nesting areas for rare bees and Barbary Dove.
Other Relevant Information
The application site comprises 0.17 acres plot that lies to the south of and to the rear of Deane Road, Hillmorton,Rugby and is within the Urban Area of Rugby.
The area is accessed via a service road that has been adopted by the County Council and therefore is subject to maintenance at public expense. The site is currently a dis-used redundant and overgrown area with small trees and vegetation and dumping of litter within the site is apparent.
The site is surrounded to the north, west and east by traditional style two storey semi-detached houses and to its southern boundary runs a public footpath followed by the grounds of a cemetery. There are several street lights within the service road area.
Immediately to the north of the site adjacent to the service road are the rear garden areas of No.s 16-32 Deane Road. Majority of these dwellings have single flat roofed garages some with parapet walls and 2 metre high walls or fences.
The proposal is for 2 dwellings (semi-detached) with associated parking. The proposal includes many architectural features that are found with the existing dwellings within the area, particularly along Deane Road, that include hip roofs and external chimneys and chimney pots. Additional design features include corbelling over the main windows and doors and to break the roof bulk there is a canopy over the ground floor frontage and two storey forward projecting elements that break up the front elevation and provide some variation and interest to the development that sets it apart from the surrounding dwellings.For both the plots there is a single detached garage that is set back from the side of the main body of the dwellings with a single off road parking space immediately in front of the garages.
Each dwelling is circa 6.3 metres in width and 8 metres in depth, 5 metres to the eaves and 7.5 metres to the highest point of the roof other than the chimney that projects slightly higher. The detached garages are 3.4 metres in width and 6.1 metres in length with 3.2 metres to the ridge of the roof.
The dwellings consist of two floors and have three bedrooms on the first floor with a bathroom area and to the ground floor a kitchen, lounge, a dining area and a wc for each of the dwellings. To the first floor front elevation there is an obscure glazed window to a bathroom area and a obscure window to a landing area to each of the plots. To the ground floor there are windows to a kitchen area of this application. The minimum distance between the windows on these elevations to the nearest windows to the rear elevations of the properties north of the site on Deane Road is circa 21 metres which is very similar distance for the windows on the front elevations of these houses to the windows on the front elevations of the properties across the road – No.s 21 to 27 Deane Road.
Two off road parking spaces are provided for each of the dwellings with a turning head for potential delivery vehicles located to the western boundary of plot 2.
There have been several previous proposals on the site with the last three being refusals for housing with the last one being in 1990. Traditionally, it appears that Highways have objected to any proposal on Highway Safety grounds for dwellings on the site and this formed a large part for the reason for refusals. However, there was an approval in March 1963 for garages or a bungalow.
Planning Policy Guidance
Rugby Borough Core Strategy
CS1Development Strategy- Complies
CS11Transport and New Development- Complies
CS16Sustainable Design- Complies
Rugby Borough Local Plan- Saved Policies
E6Biodiversity.- Complies
T5 Parking Facilities.- Complies
Sustainable Design and Construction SPD, February 2012 (RBC)
National Policy
National Planning Policy Framework, March 2012.
Determining Considerations
The key issues relating to this proposal are the impact on the residential amenities of adjacent properties, impact on the character of the area, design and appearance of the properties, highways and parking issues as well as any impact on the biodiversity of the area.
The site lies within the Rugby Urban Area as defined in the Rugby Borough Core Strategy and would constitute previously developed land. Therefore, the site would be classified as a 1st Priority site for primary focus for meeting strategic growth targets within the Rugby Borough Core Strategy 2012 and therefore the proposal accords with Policy CS1 of the Core Strategy.
The NPPF states that housing applications should be considered in the context of the presumption in favour of sustainable development within the urban areas.
Within the area there are a variety of different house designs and styles, majority are of brick construction, some with render and are generally semi-detached properties, most set back from the road with off road parking to hardsurfaced front drives. Although this site will not have a street frontage it is considered that in view of the fact that the service road is adopted by the County Council and there are existing street lights and the fact that the development is not a single dwelling but two dwellings and therefore cannot be classed as an isolated dwelling and due to the fact that there properties to the north, west and east of the site that there is some pattern of development and therefore it would be hard to justify a refusal of the proposal on these grounds.
The proposed dwellings have been designed to try and reflect the design characteristics of the dwellings within the area with additional design features such as the front canopies and the forward projecting elements in addition to the detached garages to further enhance the character of the area in which the proposed lie.
Overall therefore the dwellings proposed in this application, are of a design, appearance and scale that are considered to be in-keeping with the surrounding dwellings and will not raise any adverse or detrimental impacts. The proportion of it gives a balanced character whilst the proposed height is also considered respectful of its location with respect to the existing surrounding dwellings.
In terms of the amenities of the occupants of the nearby dwellings, the properties most affected by the development would be the properties to the north of the site, No.22 to 26 Deane Road in particular. The nearest elevation of the proposed is circa 7 metres away to the rear garden boundaries of numbers 22 to 26 and due to the design of the roof being a hip and due to there being existing garages to the rear boundaries of these properties due to the existing two metre high walls/fencing and in view of the orientation of the sun, it is considered that there will be limited impact on the amenities of the occupants of these properties in terms of loss of light or undue overshadowing to the rear element of the rear gardens.
In terms of potential overlooking or loss of privacy issues, it is considered that due to the design of the proposal only incorporating obscure glazed top hung only windows to the first floor front elevation to bathroom areas in addition to similar windows to landing areas and windows to kitchen areas only to the ground floor to the same elevation the potential for these issues are greatly mitigated. Additionally these windows are circa 21 metres away from the nearest windows to the rear elevation on the adjacent properties and moreover the main habitable rooms such as Living rooms and Bedrooms are situated to the rear elevations of the proposed where they will largely overlook the public footpath and the cemetery beyond that. It is therefore considered that the proposal does not warrant a refusal on the grounds of overlooking or loss of privacy.
The side window to bedroom 3 on plot 1 is some distance away from the nearest property to the east of the site.
Overall therefore it is considered that the proposal will not lead to an overly undue loss of sunlight, overlooking or lead to a sense of enclosure. The proposals therefore accord with the Council’s Local Development Framework Core Strategy policy CS16 which promotes sustainable design, the related Sustainable Design and Construction SPD and the governments National Planning Policy Framework which, amongst other things, encourages high quality, sustainable design and furthermore the proposal will positively contribute to the character, appearance of the area and thereby the proposal will accord with policy CS16 and NPPF.
CS16 also states that developments should use Sustainable Drainage Systems and comply with the water conservation standards contained in level 4 of the Code for Sustainable Homes. The application form specifies that the main foul sewage and the surface water will be connected to which is acceptable. A condition can be used to ensure that the water conservation standards are met.
The Rugby Borough Council Local Development Framework – Planning Obligations sets out the parking standards, the car-parking standard for 3 bed dwellings are 2 spaces in a low access area and thereby requiring a total of 4 off road parking spaces. In this instance a minimum of four off road parking spaces are provided by way of a single garage and a parking space for each of the dwellings. Additionally, there is a turning area that has been provided for any potential delivery vehicles that may need to access the proposed properties.
Furthermore, the Highways Authority have raised no objection to the access and driveway subject to conditions and informatives, and therefore it is considered that the proposal would accord with Saved Policy T5 and CS11 of the Rugby Borough Core Strategy.
With regards to the biodiversity of the site, concerns were raised regarding Barbary Doves and Red-shanked Carder Bees, however, Ecology and the Council’s Tree Officer have commented on the proposal and have raised no objections subject to informatives being attached to any approval. On this basis the proposal complies with the requirements of Saved policy E6 of the Rugby Borough Local Plan 2006.
The garden depth of the proposed dwellings shown on the drawings submitted are fairly limited and therefore it is considered appropriate to remove PD rights in the interests of safeguarding neighbouring residential amenity from works that may be carried out under PD Rights if they were intact.
Concerns were raised by neighbours regarding possible disturbance from any build work and possible contamination of the land due to discharge from the adjacent cemetery. Environmental Health were consulted and have also commented on the application and have requested that conditions and informatives be added to any approval of the proposal.
Rugby Borough Council Works Services were consulted and raised no objections to the proposal, however advised that they would not drive their lorries into the service road and bin collection point would need to be close to the access point of the service road on Deane Road.
Recommendations
That planning permission be granted subject to conditions and informatives.
Report prepared by: Nisar Mogul. 7/1/15.
Report Sheet