Appeal 3339291

The appeal is dismissed.

The decision turns on the likely effect of extension works on the size, mass, character and appearance of the original dwelling, its effect on the immediate landscape and on the supply of smaller and less expensive properties in the local area.

The appeal dwelling, [site address] , [site address] stands within a site of about 0.4ha closely bounded by the [name] railway to the east and the A49 trunk road to the west about 1km north of the village of Dorrington.

The appeal concerns the Appellant, [name] project to substantially extend his home, by adding two and single storey extensions, effectively doubling the size of the existing dwelling.

[name] wishes to considerably enlarge [site address] . He said the scheme had been tastefully designed to have a positive impact on visual amenity. The result would have no undue impact upon the character of the surrounding rural landscape.

The Council said the proposed works at [site address] would add 125m2 of floorspace to the existing dwelling. That would be an increase of total floorspace by more than 100%, (excluding the conservatory), to a total of about 245m2.

[name] was right to say that the enlarged dwelling at [site address] would be compatible with the scale and character of existing development in the area but only to the extent of comparing the resulting dwelling with an existing large detached houses in the locality rather than it retaining the character of the original dwelling.

As the Council pointed out, the Shropshire Local Development Framework Type and Affordability of Housing Supplementary Planning at paras 2.20 and 2.21 says the size of dwellings in the countryside can be of concern, as the market trend is towards providing larger and more expensive dwellings and this tends to exclude the less well-off, including those who need to live and work in rural areas. The guidance goes on to say that whilst the problem can be partly addressed through providing affordable rural dwellings, it is also important to maintain and provide an appropriate stock of smaller, lower cost, market dwellings. Further, the Council is concerned to control both the size of any replacement dwellings in the countryside and the size of extensions to houses in the countryside, as they could otherwise create larger and larger dwellings. The enlargement works proposed by [name] would more than double the existing dwelling transforming it into a different property, well beyond what might be regarded as an affordable home. In my view, that intended change amounts to a considerable objection to permitting the appeal scheme.

Whilst the extensive civil engineering and landscaping works under way over most of the land attached to [site address] I saw during my site visit are not part of the house extension project before me, they may be indicative of the scale of the inapt transformative works to the dwelling that [name] proposes.

I agree with the Council that the appeal proposal is not sympathetic to the size, mass, character and appearance of this part of the rural landscape, and would reduce the supply of smaller and less expensive properties.

I conclude that the appeal should fail.