‘Overdominant’ home extension plans refused for Sunderland street

Sunderland City Council’s planning department has refused an application for a property at Prengarth Avenue in the city’s Fulwell ward.

The applicant had applied for permission for a first floor extension above an existing garage “as a continuation of the existing first floor extension”.

A council report stated the proposal’s design included a “hipped roof of the same pitch as the main roof spanning across the full width of the resulting extension”.

After considering the planning application and assessing it against planning policies, Sunderland City Council’s planning department refused it on August 8, 2023.

While no concerns were raised about impacts on the “residential amenities of neighbouring properties”, council planning bosses raised issues with the proposed design of the extension.

A council decision report noted the development’s “design, scale, massing and position” would see it “appear as an unsympathetic addition to the subject property”.

It was also argued that the development would effectively “double the width of the original house” and would be a “highly conspicuous and overdominant form of development within the context of the street scene”.

As a result, council planners said the plans would be “of detriment to the visual amenities of the locality and host property” and would clash with planning policies.

This included the requirements of the National Planning Policy Framework and a policy in the council’s Core Strategy and Development Plan, or ‘local plan’.

A council decision report noted the applicant had highlighted a number of developments in the area that “set a precedent for this scale of development”.

Although council planners said “some similarities could be drawn from these examples” they concluded the other developments were “not directly comparable”.

It was also noted that the developments mentioned had been approved before the adoption of the current Development Management Supplementary Planning Document (SPD).

This document, which was adopted in June, 2021, sets out “detailed design guidance on domestic alterations and extensions”.

The council decision report added: “No other similar extensions to that proposed have been approved within the vicinity of the site since the adoption of the SPD.

“Therefore it is not considered that there are inconsistencies with decisions or that a precedent for development of a scale as that proposed has been set”.

The applicant has the right to challenge the council’s refusal decision by lodging an appeal with the Secretary of State.

For more information on the planning application and council refusal decision, visit Sunderland City Council’s planning portal website and search reference: 23/01258/FUL