Councillors have turned down plans to demolish a bungalow and replace it with a modern two-storey house.
Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee voted to refuse planning permission to redevelop 17B Meadow Close, Hove, on the advice of officials.
Conservative councillor Ivan Lyons spoke on behalf of nine objectors when the committee met at Hove Town Hall on Wednesday (8 January). Nine people sent in supporting comments.
Councillor Lyons, who represents Westdene and Hove Park ward, said that residents were not against the owner Radek Vik redeveloping the 1930s former garage but objected to the proposed design.
He said: “The design is an over development of the plot and out of scale and incongruous with the surrounding development.
“A proposed rear terrace and southern glazing will overlook neighbours and would result in a loss of privacy.”
Councillor Lyons was the Conservatives’ sole representative on the Planning Committee and he left the council chamber after speaking and did not take part in the debate and decision-making.
Mr Vik urged councillors to grant permission for the four-bedroom home to give his family more space.
He said: “Our current house is a very small extended garage. However, it is sitting on a huge 80-metre-long plot so anything that will be built on there will be significant.
“The current bungalow is currently described by the planning authority as an anomaly in the neighbourhood. It cannot be considered over-development when it is sitting on such a large plot next to two large houses.”
His architect Alan Phillips said that he had asked that committee members carry out a site visit but councillors decided before the meeting that they did not wish to do so.
Mr Phillips said that his firm had designed two houses in the area that had won awards from the Sussex Heritage Trust.
Referring to the planning officer’s report, Mr Phillips said: “There is no evidence to support any of the claims of architectural incompetence with regard scale, mass, form, bulk or materials.
“It fails to make an argument as to how harm can be done or how that harm could be measured.”
Green councillor Sue Shanks was the only member of the Planning Committee to vote in favour of granting planning permission.
Councillor Shanks said: “I don’t see a problem with it. I don’t see a problem with the amenity for neighbours. It is where it is in a nice close.
“I don’t like having to make these tough decisions about neighbours. It’s always subjective – one person’s ‘massive’ and ‘overlooking’ is another person’s not.”
Labour councillor Joy Robinson said that she preferred the plan – approved in 2017 – for a three-bedroom house with a pitched roof on the same site.
Councillor Robinson said: “This does feel too block-y. It’s squeezing something, as lovely as it is … into a place where it doesn’t really belong.
“The application agreed in 2017 fitted with the area. I don’t think this is right.”
The committee voted eight to one to refuse the application.
