Cllrs. Sarah Nield and Steve Davis

BH2020/03287 – 18 Valley Drive

6^th April 2021:

Comment reasons:

· Overlooking/loss of privacy

· Out of character for the area

· Substantial hard landscaping with potential to exacerbate rain water run off in a high flood‐risk area

We believe this development should not be granted and would like it to go to Planning Committee for the following reasons:

Because of the sloping nature of the gardens in this area this application to build a ‘folly’ on a series of raised terraces at the highest point of the garden would result in an obtrusive structure which would dominate and overlook the properties and gardens around it.

Valley Drive is a quiet residential road whose inhabitants enjoy the peace and tranquility of their back gardens. These gardens, however, are both narrow and steeply sloped upwards, and so a large structure at the top of a garden and filling its width, such as the one proposed even in these revised plans, would overlook

neighbouring gardens, and provide a view into the windows of neighbouring properties, to a degree which would represent a significant loss of privacy to those residents.

Moreover, because of the same sloping nature of the gardens this folly would be highly visible from these neighbouring properties and their gardens and become a dominant feature of the neighbourhood’s view. It would not be fitting for something so out of character for the area to be granted permission against the wishes of residents whose outlook it would significantly impact. This is an area of modest semi‐detached houses and narrow gardens, and the effect of building a ‘medieval folly’ here would be an oppressive one.

There is also some concern about any application in this area which contains a significant amount of hard landscaping. This is an area at high risk of flooding, where properties have previously suffered from subsidence and been underpinned, and so an application which would add more run‐off from rain water to these steeplysloping gardens brings with it the potential for further structural damage to the properties around it.

These plans are totally out of keeping with this quiet residential area. The ostentatious structure they propose would impinge on the privacy and quality of life of every resident whose garden it would overlook. For this reason as Councillors of this Ward we would like this application to be refused.