Fresh plans for controversial Nuthurst homes

A planning battle over changes to the agreed scale of three Nuthurst homes is set to continue with the submission of fresh plans.
New plans showing plots 2 and 3New plans showing plots 2 and 3
New plans showing plots 2 and 3

Planning permission for a paddock at Micklepage off Nuthurst Street was granted by Horsham District Council in 2016, but the units were not built in accordance with the approved layout and designs.

A subsequent application to regularise the changes was submitted following a compliance investigation by council officers, but this was refused by HDC’s Planning Committee North in March.

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Now the developer Green Plan Designer Homes has lodged a fresh application to the council for minor material amendments to facilitate alterations to approved site layout and approved designs.

According to the agent the scheme ‘now presented clearly provides three three-bedroom houses’.

Amendments include demolition of large portions of the built-form with total removal of any habitable room over the garage providing storage area only, removal of a window over the garage, significantly reduced massing, bulk and scale,the retention of the remaining dormer windows as pitched in line with the parish design statement, while for the first plot the dormer window will be removed completely in response to concerns about perceived overlooking.

The agent concludes: “It is not considered that the amended design causes any greater harm than that is permitted, the scheme submitted in this application has taken into consideration comments from a number of interested parties in particular the parish council and it is now considered that the proposed design fully addresses the points raised whilst largely conforming to the original application.”

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However a number of objections from residents to the fresh plans have already been lodged, arguing that the revised plans still do not resemble the three-bedroom properties originally approved by HDC.

Several objectors suggested the storage rooms could still be used as fourth bedrooms and argued the changes had not addressed concerns about the roof heights, designs, layout and plot sizes.

One objector said the application ‘shows no real attempt to meet the existing planning permission’, adding: “He [the developer] has not clearly remedied the other main breaches of excessive windows and the development positioning.”

Visit www.horsham.gov.uk/planning using code DC/18/1046.