A PLANNING application to add a second storey to a bungalow in Fairford has been rejected by Cotswold District Council (CDC) due to the impact on a nearby Grade II Listed Building and Conservation Area, and the precedent it may set in future.

Planning Officer Jos Price had recommended committee members permit the application, which would include a first floor extension and partial loft conversion to The Close – a detached bungalow which was once accommodation for staff at a school – at a meeting on September 14.

In the meeting agenda, the property is described as ‘occupying an unusual location surrounded by other dwellings and with no street frontage’ and ‘accessed off of the driveway running between Croft Cottage and Linden Cottage’ – the latter of which is a Grade II Listed Building.

Ms Price, in her recommendation, had written: “It is adjudged that the application would not result in adverse impacts or harm and that the application complies with Local Plan Policy’.

The application was deferred from the committee meeting on August 10 for a site inspection briefing, which saw members visit the property on September 7.

Richard Barry, an occupant of Linden House, speaking at the meeting, ‘strongly’ opposed the application because he felt the property would be ‘seriously invading our privacy’.

He said: "When we bought Linden House, which is Grade II Listed in the Conservation Area, and lies within 10 metres of The Close, the attraction was its lovely Georgian architecture and pretty walled gardens, which came with total privacy and there were no windows in the bungalow facing Linden House.”

Mr Barry went on to oppose the application on the grounds that the bungalow is already ‘totally visible’ and a second storey would further decrease privacy, while raising the roof would ‘inevitably lessen the light into our garden’.

He said he was, however, not opposed to any extensions to the building’s footprint, just not its height.

“We would therefore plead to the planning committee that the move sideways could be the way forward, but definitely not, upwards.”

Fairford Town Council (FTC), at a planning meeting the previous month, had also opposed the application because members were concerned that granting it would set a precedent for the area.

Speaking at the meeting, Cllr Richard Harrison, FTC planning committee member, said: “Among other things, we have identified the net mark of bungalows in Fairford and it seems there are none being built as part of the new developments that are going on, so converting this one to a house clearly wouldn't help capacity needs.”

He agreed that ‘extending’ the footprint ‘would in our view, clearly be a better and less controversial solution’.

Cllr Abagail Beccle, CDC ward member for Fairford North, said: "With all the development that's going on in Fairford, could we not think about preserving this particular Conservation Area? It is very small.

“I think there's something better that could be done there, rather than something that's going to be seen as a blot, a real blot on a lot of different angles and affect a lot of people in a beautiful part of a town.”

Cllr Sue Coakley, CDC ward member for Fairford South said: “All due respect to the people who were living in what was the annex to the school, it's ugly. Anything would probably be an improvement architecturally.

“However, there is a huge amount of space around that property to allow it to be extended without it having to increase in height.

"We've got clear evidence from the survey undertaken as part of the work on the Neighbourhood Development Plan in Fairford that there is a clear demand for bungalows in this area, so I think there would be harm in reducing that stock in the town at a point where we evidence that there is an unmet and no plan to meet that current demand.”

Cllr Coakley then proposed a refusal of the case officer’s recommendation and Cllr David Fowles seconded the proposal.

Nine members voted to refuse the recommendation, with four voting to accept and one abstention.