A plan to knock down two homes and replace them with nine new houses in Sandhurst has been rejected.
A scheme first emerged to knock down the Athol Villa and the Woodside bungalow in Westbourne Road, which is in the College Town area and replace it with five new buildings in November 2021.
Designs showed the existing houses replaced with two detached and four semi-detached homes, and a three-house terrace.
These newbuilds would have provided three two-bedroom homes, three three-bedroom homes and a four-bedroom home on the site.
Eight of the new homes would have two parking spaces, and a larger four-bedroom house would have three parking spaces.
Justifying the scheme, an agent from ET Planning stated that both existing homes benefit from extensive rear garden land that could deliver a ‘windfall’ of homes for Sandhurst.
However, the project was refused by the planning authority, Bracknell Forest Council, with the case officer arguing the site has a medium risk of flooding, stating that a lack of mitigation measures had been submitted.
It was also rejected as the officer judged it to be an overdevelopment of the site, lacking adequate space for parking, turning and safe pedestrian access.
Development company Rio Homes then submitted an appeal against this decision to the government’s planning inspectorate, which was assessed by Hollie Nicholls.
While she conceded that mitigation measures would appropriately address the flood risk, she concluded that the nine homes would be crammed into the site.
Inspector Nicholls wrote: “The density and layout of the scheme would be efficient in the extreme, resulting in a cramped and poor quality form of development.”
The appeal was therefore dismissed in October 2023.
You can view the refused application by typing reference 21/00928/FUL into Bracknell council’s planning portal.
Since the dismissal of the appeal, Rio Homes made adjustments to the housing mix and layout to create two three-bed and six two-bed homes with a one-bed flat-over-garage.
However, the developers ultimately abandoned that plan last August.
Rio Homes has recently submitted a scaled-back application for four two-bed semi-detached homes to replace Athol Villa and Woodside.
A planning agent from Solve Planning wrote: “The previous appeal proposals for the site considered a more extensive development across a larger plot, extending to the rear of the site.
“The inspector’s comments were mainly focused on the wider site rather than the four dwellings proposed to the frontage and did not have any negative comments in this regard.”
You can view the newest application using reference 24/00740/FUL.
Athol Villa was last bought for £267,500 in 2005, and Woodside was bought for £527,500 in 2019, according to property website The Move Market.
