Developers have this week failed in their second attempt to build four three-storey semi-detached houses behind the former Old Flowerpot Inn on Kingswood High Street.
Plans to turn the pub itself into a 125-place children’s nursery was granted earlier this year, subject to the developer paying £10,000 for a Traffic Regulation Order for a waiting restriction to manage the traffic that would be generated.
The original application for the three-bedroom houses with access from neighbouring Station Court was refused in August 2020. South Gloucestershire Council, which had received 25 letters of objection, ruled that the number of houses proposed for the small site would result in a cramped development and that homes nearby would be affected by overlooking and loss of privacy.
The plans were also rejected because of road safety and on-street parking concerns due to the lack of parking spaces.
A resubmitted application showed the buildings further apart and set back from the boundary with the road. The overall height was also reduced by dropping the ground floor level and lowering the roof pitch.
The plans showed access would be from Station Court. Two plots would each have two car spaces while the other two would have a space each. A dedicated visitor parking space was also proposed. The planning application added: “Additional on-street parking will be possible as currently enjoyed along Station Court in front of the houses.”
But there were also 25 letters of objection to Flowerpot Properties Ltd’s latest plans including from local councillor Alison Evans. She said the development would harm the privacy of Station Court residents, where parking is already an area of contention and causes problems on a daily basis.
“The previous approval of the day nursery will surely exacerbate this and should be evaluated before any new development is considered. The plot to be built on is not very large and four houses would seem excessively crammed into such a small area,” she said.
“The parking provided seems artificially squeezed into an area that looks like it should have been used for the day nursery’s garden, and in my opinion would leave the area looking overdeveloped. I believe that if the application was approved, it would have a detrimental effect on the households opposite in Station Court, and on the residents behind in Honey Hill Road. I oppose this planning application and hope that the developer will look again at the number of dwellings they are trying to squeeze into this plot.”
In refusing the latest plans, council planners again said that the constrained size of the site meant that four three-storey houses would result in a cramped form of development: “The scheme would have knock-on adverse implications for residential amenity and parking provision. The amount and quality of the private amenity space for all houses is considered to be substandard. Given the overall height and position of the dwellings, existing neighbouring dwellings would be adversely affected in terms of overlooking, loss of privacy and inter-visibility. Due to the lack of parking spaces the proposal would have a detrimental impact on on-street parking and highway safety.”
Thank you for reading this. The Week In has been publishing local news free of charge for the last 12 years. That won’t change in the future but we are changing the way we run our business. Until now, we have been solely dependent on advertising revenue but we have now set up a cooperative to oversee the future development of the publication. The Week In Community Ltd is a community benefit society, owned not by shareholders but individual members. By becoming a member at £3 a month you will not only be contributing to the future of local interest journalism but will also have a say in the future of the organisation. To find out more, click on the button on the right of the banner at the top of this page.
