Local objection to luxury homes
Concerns about the ‘scope’ of five-house plan
FIVE luxury homes are to be built in Cold Ash, but neighbouring residents have expressed displeasure around the scope of the development.
Objections have been made in response to the ongoing housing development application on the land adjacent to Summerfield on The Ridge, for which an appeal was made on November 22.
An outline planning permission application was approved in 2017 for the ‘change of use’ of part of an existing agricultural field to residential and the construction of five detached dwelling houses with ancillary garages, access parking, landscaping and associated works.
Applicant, property developer Ta Fisher, then bought the land to provide five independently standing “luxury homes” on the site.
Cold Ash parish councillor Ivor McArdle said that the application was initially challenged, locally, on the grounds of “size, height, uniformity and impact on a historic hedgegrow”.
However the applicant made “numerous changes to ameliorate concerns” raised by residents, which then resulted in granted planning permission from the secretary of state on appeal.
Since then, an enlargement of the garage roof ridge heights was proposed to be raised to 6.03m – an increase of 1.07m from the initial application – to fit office spaces in the garages for home working, post-pandemic.
These garages are to also have external staircases on the side and dormer windows to the rear.
The council refused the application on the basis of the garage roof heights being “out of character with the area” and an “overdevelopment”.
The application has also received objection from local residents who believe the plans are “not in keeping”
with the surroundings.
An appeal has since gone to the secretary of state proposing that two garages out of the five garages have gable roofs rather than the previously approved hipped roofs, to accommodate the home offices.
Mr McArdle said: “The behaviour and tactics of the developer are not what we would expect.
“The site in question is of significant importance to the village of Cold Ash and surrounding countryside, being on the eastern gateway to the village and abutting an AONB [Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty].
“We’d expect the developer to respect this and stand by the plans that were [first] approved by the secretary of state.”
However, Ta Fisher development director Steve Davies said that the changes to the garage roofs were made to accommodate the needs of customers following changes in the housing market.
He said: “The local authority
allocated the site for housing, they wanted to see the site be developed on. We bought the site from the then land owners after they got planning consent.”
“Since then we have had Covid come and knock on our door and the market has changed dramatically. The first thing that people ask for is work from home opportunities.
“And so for this particular scheme we thought what can we do, is there any way we can include them?
“It is what people are looking for, our buyers are getting more and more fussy.”
When discussing the height of the development, Mr Davies commented that when looking at the plans, before and after the changes, it was a challenge to “spot the difference”.
The application, as it stands, is awaiting an official decision, and can be viewed by searching 21/01203/REM on West Berkshire’s planning portal.