Appeal 3302767

The appeal is dismissed.

The main issue in the appeal is the effect of the proposal on the character and appearance of the streetscene.

The Gattens is a detached two storey house with front and rear garden, located on the south side of [address] in the settlement of Henfield. There are some ancillary buildings at the rear of the plot and there is a small shed in the front garden. There is a mature hedge which in part is located on the boundary with [address]. The house is set well back from the road.

The proposal is to erect a single storey timber car shed/garage in the front curtilage not far from the front hedge. It would measure about 3m wide by about 5.5m deep and would comprise of a single bay garage with a low-profile shallow pitch roof. The building would be a timber structure with timber cladding and timber garage doors.

The road is characterised by mainly detached dwellings but there are also some semi-detached dwellings of varying designs and materials. The detached houses in the immediate vicinity of The Gattens are also set well back from the road with [name], Holroyds and Hedgerow also having a similar front building line leaving spacious front areas. The streetscene is generally verdant.

[name] has a shed in the front garden, a general characteristic of the road is that the front gardens are free of significant built structures and there are glimpsed views of the front elevations of the properties uncluttered by garages. The pattern tends to be garages situated in line with or set back from the principal elevation of the dwellings. Whilst the proposed building would feature a shallow pitched roof which assists in reducing its scale and the ground will be cut away so that the roof would be below the existing hedge line, it would nevertheless be a building of bulk which would be visible when approaching the appeal site by road or footpath from the west and would be out of step with the pattern of built development in this part of the settlement.

The existing hedge would screen the proposal from some views but it would not render the proposal acceptable. Vegetation cannot be relied upon to be a permanent feature in the streetscene and it could not be conditioned to be retained permanently or over any extended period of time. It’s presence would not therefore serve to mitigate the visual impact and development pattern incongruity which has been identified from the siting of a garage within the front curtilage of the site.

The gradual slope down from road to the dwelling does not in my view make the proposal more acceptable or provide mitigation.

I conclude that the proposal would harm the character and appearance of the streetscene and would be contrary to policies 25 and 33 of the Horsham District Planning Framework (adopted 2015). 10.I have borne in mind the benefits that would emanate from the proposal as referred to in the representations made. However, I conclude that the identified harm would outweigh the benefits in this case.