Shropshire neighbours in uproar over 'self-build windfall' home plans are backed by council following fears of 'overshadowing' and loss of privacy
Neighbours who were up in arms over plans for a ‘self-build’ property in a Shropshire market town have been backed by council planners.
A couple put in proposals to Telford & Wrekin Council for a four-bedroom detached house on back garden land owned by their family in Station Road in Newport and it sparked a backlash.
Neighbours claimed that the house would cause “significant overshadowing” and “significant loss of privacy” to properties with south-facing gardens in Wright Avenue.
One person wrote on the council’s planning portal that the building would be “just over a hedge to the back of the property-limiting light to the rear lawn".
Another hit back at a claim that the house would contribute to housing need.
“But with 350 dwellings already approved nearby, the local plan’s windfall requirement has already been exceeded,” an objector wrote.
“This argument carries no weight. Conclusion: The proposal is harmful to amenity, flood resilience, highway safety and biodiversity, and is based on misleading assertion.”
Applicants’ agent Hugh Jackson, of Shifnal-based Planning Plain & Simple, had told planners that the site was in a “sustainable location, suitable for development".
“It would contribute to the local planning authority’s own identified need for 30 dwellings per year from ‘windfall’ sites as part of the five-year land supply and the Government’s objective of significantly boosting the supply of homes.”
The agent had told the council that the immediate locality has rapidly evolved in the last decade following the building out of Wright Avenue, the development of a residential care home and earlier phases on the western side of Station Road opposite.
“The application site is a vestigial plot of now redundant formerly agricultural land temporarily used as a site compound by the developers of Wright Avenue.”
Planners have recently decided against the applicants, saying that the council considered the plan would “fail to be in keeping with the prevailing character and appearance of the surrounding area".
They supported the residents’ case saying it would “result in detrimental harm upon the residential amenities” of some properties in Wright Avenue, “by way of perceived overbearing impact".
Planners also said that insufficient information was provided to demonstrate that vehicles can exit the site in a forward gear, or that the site can be adequately drained.
