A back garden home in Patcham has been approved despite objections from neighbours and councillors.
Bridget Haxby, of Hill Drive, Hove, applied to build the house – a single-storey property with two bedrooms and a parking space – in the back garden of 65 Ladies Mile Road.
The latest application was approved two years after Mrs Haxby successfully applied to turn the two-storey house at 65 Ladies Mile Road, on the corner of Ladies Mile Close, into a seven-bedroom shared house.
The back garden proposal was approved by Brighton and Hove City Council’s Planning Committee in a meeting at Hove Town Hall last Wednesday (1 July).
Two of the Conservative councillors who represent the area, Alistair McNair and Anne Meadows, objected, saying that it was an overdevelopment. They also said that it would result in an unacceptable loss of amenity to the residents of 65 Ladies Mile Road.
A report to the committee said that the plans would make a “small but positive contribution to housing supply within the city”.
The report also said that there would be modest adverse effects the neighbourhood from increased comings and goings but did not consider that this made the plan worthy of refusal.
A neighbour Michelle Graham said: “The council’s own pre-application advice concluded that the proposal overly dominated the plot and strongly recommended reducing its footprint.”
“Housing need is only one material planning consideration and it does not override the requirement for development to be appropriate to its setting.”
The council received seven objections to the proposal citing overdevelopment, loss of privacy for neighbours and reduced garden space for the existing shared house.
Toby Deacon spoke, from Lewis and Co Planning, spoke for the applicant, and said that the proposal would contribute to housing supply.
Mr Deacon also said that the plans were amended after pre-application consultation with officials, saying: “The scale has been reduced and the form has been refined to reflect the local context.”
Despite the change, Councillor McNair said that planning officers had already shown concern about overdevelopment, having previously reduced the number of occupants at 65 Ladies Mile Road from nine to seven.
The council’s Planning Committee voted eight to one in favour of the plans.
