Rotherham Council Planning Appeal 1st Floor Side Extension Case Study
This case started for us when we were contacted by our client after their recent application had been refused by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council and a decision notice had been issued to our client refusing the application.
The refusal was issued on the 24th June and as a House Holder Application, the appeal had 12 weeks from the decision notice to be submitted to the Planning Inspectorate.
The client instructed us to proceed on the 3rd August, as they felt the application had not been assessed correctly as revised plans that were provided addressing issues that had been raised by the planning officer were not actually used to determine the application.
We always recommend leaving at least a whole clear month from instruction to appeal deadline in-case additional investigations are needed, but the more time available the better.
The refusal reasons given by Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council were that they considered the proposed first floor side extension by virtue of its excessive width, and that it fails to create a subservient and appropriate addition.
Which appears over dominant, would unbalance the pair of semi-detached dwellings and would be detrimental to the visual amenity of the street scene.
As such, the proposed development is contrary to the National Planning Policy Framework, Local Plan policies CS28 and SP55 and the Supplementary Planning Document – ‘Householder Design Guide’.
These refusal reasons do look harsh if you are not used to reading local authority decision notices and many would give up after reading this type of refusal.
In fact many people do give up at this stage and do not go to appeal, but honestly refusal reasons like these are perfectly normal and in a case like this case nothing unusual.
We at HEAL Planning have a lot of experience dealing with refusals of this type in Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council area and across England.
For this appeal we produced a 22 page detailed appeal statement, working our way through the delegated officers report and decision notice, dismantling their objections and the reasons Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council used to refuse this application.
Providing a comprehensive and robust argument, bringing national and local policies into play, and detailed reasoning as to why the findings were wrong, and in-fact this development was perfectly acceptable.
Additionally we completed a detailed amount of research to find very similar cases, that the planning inspectorate had previously granted, and we looked to use these cases to support our argument as best possible.
As this appeal was a House Holder appeal the local authority, which in this case was the Rotherham Metropolitan Borough Council, did not have the right of response to our appeal statement.
This case like the vast majority of similar cases, was dealt with by way of Written Representation, and as such it is paramount that the argument is very comprehensive and robust as there is no second chance to respond.
The inspector visited the appeal site on 25th January 2022 and issued the appeal decision on 7th February 2022 in a three page detailed report.
The good news was that the appeal was upheld and the permission granted.
Rotherham Council Planning Appeal 1st Floor Side Extension Case Study
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