Item 18                                            Owls Oak, Lenham Road, Kingswood

15/503785/FULL

Additional letters of support / objection have been received.

A letter of support has been received from the Clinical Case Manager for the applicant’s eight year old son who suffers from dystonic cerebral palsy.  The points of support are summarised as follows:

·         The applicants son is entirely reliant upon a wheelchair for his mobility and has a team of carers and specialist therapists supporting him 24 hours a day.  

·         The proposed extensions would give the applicants son access to the range of facilities, comforts and equipment he requires. 

·         The proposal has been drawn up following consultation with a team of experts, including specialist disability architects, occupational therapists, physiotherapists, nursing and care experts. 

·         The extensions have been revised several times after considering neighbour objections and the impacts on trees on the site. 

One neighbour has provided a further objection.  The points of objection are summarised as follows and largely re-iterated their previous objection:

·         Original application 14/504885 was refused as the front and rear extensions would result in development that overwhelms the original house.

·         The current application has been amended which reduces the width of the extensions but increases the extensions at the rear of the property.

·         The amendments have not reduced the overall size of the proposed extensions.

·         The proposed extensions would overwhelm and destroy the form of the existing house. 

·         Loss of privacy to the neighbouring property known as Wild Acre.

·         Extensions would be out of keeping with surrounding properties.

·         The extensions would harm the character of the countryside.

·         None of the neighbouring objections and Parish Council Objections have been taken into account.

Further comments received from Ulcombe Parish Council are summarised as follows:-

The Parish Council has advised that they have not had the opportunity to comment on the latest set of amended plans.

The Parish advise that the latest amendments need a further comment from the Parish because it is a contentious application and the Parish feel they need to have a reasonable time period to comment as a consultee.

The Parish therefore request that the application be deferred until they have had a chance to discuss the application.

Officer comments

The applicant has amended the original submission taking into consideration neighbour objections and potential impacts on the two TPO Oak trees. 

The extensions have been repositioned away from the two Oak trees and the Council Arborist no longer raises any objections on tree grounds. 

Rooflights have either been removed from the proposal or have been raised to 2.1m above internal floor levels to overcome overlooking toward neighbouring properties.

The amended plans see the extension reoriented more toward the rear of the property rather than extending across the full width of the site as previously proposed.  As stated in the committee report the first floor rear opening serving the carer’s room would afford a degree of overlooking toward the rear.  However, given the orientation, oblique viewing angles, separation distances and boundary screening, I am of the view that the proposal would not result in an unacceptable loss of privacy to the neighbouring property to warrant refusal of the application. 

The council re-consulted local residents and the Parish Council for a statutory 14 days on the latest set of amendments.  The deadline for comments expired on 9 November 2015. 

Recommendation

The recommendation for “Approved with conditions” remains unchanged.