22/1861/FUL REFUSED: Additional Parking

Whitelands Avenue, Chorleywood - Planning Application Three Rivers District Council

This application is to add a couple of level parking spaces to the front of the existing house which has an existing steeply sloping drive, and also a flat terrace to the rear of the house.

Read the full planning application here.

The house is one of a cul-de-sac of 1950’s suburban houses constructed on sloping land and unfortunately no. 119 appears to be at one of the steepest points. The addition of two no. level car-parking spaces on the frontage of this surrounded by a retaining wall will undoubtedly change the character of the street scene, is likely to be over-dominant on the existing house with cars sitting halfway up the living room windows and so although the application has the best of intentions, a flatter drive being much safer than the existing, unfortunately, the proposal would be pretty unattractive.

The additional proposal is for a level terrace in the back garden which would give the occupants somewhere to sit outside at house's ground floor level is not unreasonable and with appropriate screening, another application just for this should gain successful approval.  

If the houses were being designed today then there would more likely be road-level access for the cars, with an integral garage and parking at road level and then maybe a lower ground floor onto the rear garden, building regulations have changed a lot since the 1950’s to enable less able people to safely access their houses.

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