A plan to build a garage and workshop in a garden backing on to Lime Street, Brightlingsea has been turned down by Tendring District Council’s planning officers – just days after its planning committee approved a similar plan in the same road.
Officers said the proposal for the 9m x 8.3m building at 115 Tower Street – which included a double garage, shower room, office accommodation, first-floor balcony and al-fresco dining and sitting area – was, at 5.7m, too high in comparison with surrounding buildings and that the gambrel roof “exceeds the roofscape of an other existing/permitted building in the locale by a considerable degree”. They added: “For this reason it is considered that the proposal both fails to improve the character of the area and fails to respect existing street patterns.”
Last week (Jan 22) a large outbuilding on a Lime Street plot to the rear of 87 and 89 Tower Street that has been turned into an ornamental garden was approved with conditions including a ban on any residential use. In the latest application, one nearby resident objected on the grounds that rather than a workshop, the building would be a “residential dwelling”, but planning officers said there was no indication that this was the case. They did, however, say that “it cannot be satisfactorily established that the development would protect the amenity of existing residents with regard to overlooking”.
In the application, the applicant – Karen Cooke – said that the development was “required for the health needs” of her children, but officers said that “the individual requirements to manage the child’s needs could be achieved in a building of a more appropriate design, scale and bulk”.
