Appeal 3330300

The appeal is allowed and planning permission is granted for the erection of metal gates with piers at [site address] , Epsom, Surrey, [postcode] in accordance with the terms of the application, Ref 23/01355/F, dated 3 July 2023, and the plans submitted with it, subject to the following conditions:

The development hereby permitted shall begin not later than 3 years from the date of this decision.

The development hereby permitted shall be carried out in accordance with the following approved plans, drawings: 093_P_G01, G02 and G03.

I consider the main issue to be the effect of the proposal on the character and appearance of the area.

The appeal property, [site address] is a recently built detached two-storey dwelling. It is one of a development of now twelve dwellings built on a back land site. Number 8, only recently completed, is located at the end of a cul-de-sac. The driveway being an extension of the hammer head at the end of the original estate road.

The appellant proposes an automatic metal sliding access gate together with a pedestrian gate at the entrance to the property. The gates would be inset into an existing timber close boarded fence with concrete posts. The new gates would be of a simple, well mannered, contemporary design formed with vertical railings. Due to their design, they would allow views into what will be the front landscaped garden of the dwelling.

The original estate is characterised largely by either open or soft landscaped frontages. However, unlike the other properties the driveway to number 8 does not serve any other dwellings and the garden plot extends across the drive to garage and a garden area opposite the house. The drive is therefore private, and the property does not have the same relationship to the access road or neighbouring dwellings as the other dwellings in the estate. Accordingly, number 8 has a very different appearance to the remainder of the development. Further the greater extend of the south-west boundary, in which the gates would be sited, is effectively the private garden boundary to number 6 and the neighbouring property facing Fir Tree Lane.

On balance, for the foregoing reasons, I do not consider that the proposed gates would cause significant harm to the character of the established development or the wider locality. The proposal would therefore accord with the objectives of Policy DES1 of the Reigate and Banstead Local Plan- Development Management Plan ([name] 2019) as it seeks, along with other things, to ensure that any development promotes and reinforces local distinctiveness and respects the character of the surrounding area along with the visual appearance of the immediate street scene.

The conditions follow from those suggested by the Council. In addition to the standard time condition and in the interests of certainty, I shall impose a condition requiring the development to be undertaken in accordance with the approved plans.

For the reasons given above and having regard to all other matters raised, I conclude that the appeal should be allowed.