A plan for five new luxury homes in Reading has been rejected due to concerns about a lack of space for the families who could have lived there.
The project would have involved the demolition of a bungalow with a sizeable garden to make way for five four-bedroom homes.
The existing house is situated next to the Beech House Hotel at the A4 Bath Road in Southcote, with a long driveway leading to the bungalow.
The plan was submitted to Reading Borough Council by the landowner in March last year.
Sketches by Dusek Design Associates show a Porsche and a Lamborghini car parked outside the homes, giving an impression of the type of future occupant the landowner wanted to attract.
Touting the plan, an agent argued that the houses would have a traditional Georgian design in keeping with the area, provide sustainable development and the more efficient use of the land in comparison with the bungalow.
Furthermore, all of them would have been family-sized homes.
But the project was rejected by the council’s planning department, with fears being raised about the overdevelopment of the plot and the lack of garden space for future occupiers.
Planning officer Anthony Scoles wrote: “The proposed development would result in significant harm to neighbouring properties and fail to provide
a suitable level of amenity for proposed residents, and has failed to demonstrate that the proposal would not result in impacts on amenity, or provide suitable amenity within gardens for proposed residents.”
The applicant attempted to get this decision overturned in an appeal to the government’s planning inspectorate.
Assessing it, appointed inspector Brian Sims found no objections with the architectural design, and judged that it would be in keeping with the character of the area.
But ultimately, he sided with the council’s reasons for refusal, dismissing the appeal.
This result featured in a report to the last meeting of the council’s planning applications committee on April 29.
Mark Worringham, the council’s planning policy manager, wrote: “This is a pleasing decision.
“The inspector upheld reasons for refusal relating to privacy and overlooking, as well as overshadowing of neighbouring development, the failure to demonstrate no net loss of biodiversity and unsuitable information to enable determination of a mandatory net gain, and a failure to enter into a legal agreement for off-site affordable housing.”
The report also mentioned applications for costs by both the landowner and the council, which were both rejected.
You can view the refused application by typing reference PL/25/0350 into the council’s planning portal.
Earlier this year, the council approved a separate application, reference PL/25/1631, relating to the conversion of the Beech House Hotel into a nursery.
