A plan to demolish a garage to make way for a ‘modern’ one-bed home has been turned down again by the council.
The planning application by Russell Pinfield asked for permission to demolish a garage on land next to a home in Woolhope Road and build a one-bed home but the move was rejected by planners at Worcester City Council.
The council said the new home’s ‘modern’ design would detract from the rest of the Victorian street – which is filled with terraced and semi-detached homes built in the late 19th century – and would disrupt neighbours’ privacy.
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Planners also said the application did not provide a big enough garden.
The council’s landscaping officer Chris Dobbs said: “The new dwelling is full-size family house, but has extremely limited amenity space at the rear.
“Even as a ‘yard’ it is extremely small. This isn't especially sustainable and is out of character with neighbouring properties and the area.”
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Neighbours had complained that the new three-storey home would overlook their gardens and block sunlight from entering kitchens and living rooms.
One objector, Will Cullwick of Woolhope Road, said: “The proposals would represent clear over development of the site, resulting in an uncharacteristic, cramped form of development.
“The plot is currently just capable of accommodating a single garage, meaning the development is proposed to be built right on the boundary, with a height that is disproportional to the size of the plot, and a very small courtyard which would be barely functional for future occupants.”
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A plan to demolish the garage and build a new home was first rejected by the council in 2021.
The council’s planning officers said the new home would be “visually intrusive and jarring” and “an incongruous, harmful and visually intrusive addition to the street.”
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“The proposed development would instead be a deleterious addition to the street,” planners said.
A report outlining the council’s rejection said: “The materially and noticeably different roof shape to the proposed dwelling would be at significant variance to the largely uniform roofscape of Woolhope Road.”
Another plan was then put forward but withdrawn just a few months later before another decision could be made.
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