Appeal 6005093

The appeal is dismissed.

The main issue is the effect of the proposal upon the character and appearance of the area.

The appeal property is a two storey semi detached house within this suburban street. The vast majority of houses along [address] exhibit typical and high quality mid century design features and, notably on this street, these take the form of double height bow or box bay windows to the front elevation beneath gable roof features, hipped roof ends and generally symmetrical pairs of houses.

There is a definite rhythm and regularity in the street created by the majority of houses maintaining space between them and the rhythm, or flow, of the bay windows. These epitomise the semi detached forms and emphasise the character of the streetscene here.

Number [site address] represents something of a departure from this pleasing rhythm due primarily to extensions that, for a large part, appear to have been undertaken through permitted development. These include, but are not limited to, the alteration of the roof form from a hipped roof over side extension to that of a gable end. As a result of this work the pair of semi detached houses have become unbalanced and the rhythm of the street has been altered.

I consider that this change has therefore not helped preserve or enhance the streetscene and the amount of unarticulated walling to this front elevation, along with its gable roof form and continuous ridge height has caused significant visual disruption.

The proposal before me is to create a traditional style bay window to this front extension. The windows would be similar to that of the existing, although very Appeal Decision Appeal Ref: 6005095 slightly narrower which would result in the central mullion being omitted from the new extension. The bay windows would remove an existing garage doorway and would be two storeys in similar materials to that of the main house.

The construction of these bay windows would introduce another such feature within the flow of the street. This would cause disruption into the streetscene whereby the legibility of pairs of semi detached houses would be eroded.

Although the proposed bay windows would partially mitigate the asymmetrical nature of the appeal property it would further contribute to a disruption in the defining appearance of pairs of well articulated semi detached houses. As such the rhythm of the street would be irreparably altered and this would represent a further harmful cumulation of development here.

As such the proposal would cause harm to the character of the street and would not mitigate the existing appearance of the property. In light of this I consider that the scheme would not be capable of meeting the policy requirements of policies CS7, DM17 and DM20 of the Blackpool Local Plan.

The proposal would cause harm to the character and appearance of the area. As such, for the reasons given above, whilst taking into account all other matters raised, I must dismiss this appeal.