REFUSED: Addition of a Series of Balconies to the Rear of an Existing Office Building on The Broadway

PL/22/3479/FA Amersham, Buckinghamshire Council

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This application, submitted to Buckinghamshire Council for a series of glass balconies and some private terraces to the rear of the existing office here, is refused on the basis of loss of car parking, and loss of privacy for neighbours to the rear of the offices, whose gardens back onto the car park located here.

On the face of it, the offices are a fair distance from the neighbours gardens, there appears to be a good degree of vegetation/tree coverage adding to privacy for the gardens, and these gardens are quite long and so the distances between the proposed balconies and the rear windows of the affected houses is significant. Politically, this is a decision by the planners in favour of the neighbours, not rocking the boat, realistically there might be some loss of privacy in the gardens but if the office site was re-developed for housing, it is likely that rear windows to a replacement development would be acceptable to be closer than these proposed balconies to the rear of the dwellings. It doesn't help either that the drawings depicting these balconies are very poor, but better quality presentation probably would not overcome the refusal.

PAPA SAYS - amend the application to keep the original car parking spaces, prepare some site sections to indicate the distances between balconies and rear windows, propose reinforced landscaping to the boundary, add privacy screen to the sides of the balconies, with better presented drawings and go-again, and then to appeal if the scheme is refused.