Bid for larger home to replace cottage vetoed

PLANS to make an “unashamedly modern” house set to replace Bath’s historic Waterworks Cottage even bigger than previously planned have been thrown out by the council.

Owners Jeremy and Sarah Flavell secured planning permission in July to replace the cottage on Charlcombe Way with two modern homes.

The couple had already secured the right to knock down the cottage without the need for prior approval in 2022.

But a bid to get planning permission to change one of the new homes from three bedrooms to four was turned down by the Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee.

The footprint of the house would have been extended by 70cm to the south and 80cm to the east to allow space for the new bedroom.

Tom Rocke, planning agent for the Flavells, told the committee: “The proposed changes to the dwelling... are minimal and will barely be perceptible on the ground. They will result in the footprint of the building moving eastwards and westwards by less than a metre.”

But objector David Metcalfe said that most people already found the planned buildings “large and intrusive”.

Joanna Wright, the ward councillor for the area on Bath and North East Somerset Council pointed out that the original plans for the site – which originally proposed three modern homes – had to be scaled back after the planning inspector judged them to be “intensive overdevelopment”.

She said: “Planning consent has previously been given for this development and was based on changes made to make the impact smaller.”

She warned that the local community were against the development of the site but had been “overlooked”.

The council’s planning officers recommended the plans to expand the house be approved, but councillors voted 9-1 to go against the recommendation and reject the application.

Debating the application, Councillor Paul Crossley said: “I am absolutely clear the extension is unacceptable. We were right on the edge of turning it down completely last time in the debate. It was a very marginal decision.”

The original permission to build the homes had been granted in July after a three-year planning battle.

Waterworks Cottage overlooks Chalcombe Valley and dates back to the 1850s when it was probably built as worker’s accommodation for the workers at the nearby waterworks. Although it is not listed, it has been a non-designated heritage asset locally since 2017.