Inspector allows Telford garage-to-house conversion despite ‘overlooking’ fear
A planning inspector has overturned a council rejection of a man’s plan to turn a backyard garage into a new dwelling.
Planners at Telford & Wrekin Council had ruled that the plan at the back of Beveley Road, Oakengates, would create a “sense of being overlooked and would have an overbearing impact” on the neighbours.
The property is close to Jenko’s restaurant and the plan would, in the council’s view, also have a “negative impact on the street layout.”
The applicant, Stephen Parton, of Ketley Bank, appealed to Whitehall after the council’s decision.
But the Planning Inspectorate’s P Brennan rejected the council’s decision.
Following a visit to the area in April the inspector said “the residential conversion would not adversely harm the general pattern of development.”
The inspector said that the council’s policies “support residential development that respects and responds to its context and the character of the area, enhances the built environment, and preserves and reinforces street patterns, layouts, frontages, and boundary treatments.”
On the issue of overlooking the inspector said there would be a “limited loss of privacy” but that there was an “oblique angle to prevent direct overlooking.”
The inspector added that the existing rear gardens are already subject to overlooking from the adjacent restaurant access road.
“Any potential overlooking and loss of privacy to existing rear garden space from the proposed dwelling would be minimal,” the inspector concluded.
“As such, no detrimental loss of privacy –actual or perceived – would occur,” the inspector concluded.
