Recovery for ‘horrible’ conservatory ‘like 1960s bus shelter’ built without planning permission

Homeowners have been allowed to keep a conservatory that “looks like a 1960s bus shelter” and was built without planning permission in the green belt – as long as they paint the black panels white. South Gloucestershire Council officers have advised a planning committee to refuse retrospective consent, meaning the summer house will have to be demolished, after angry next-door neighbors complained it was “horrible” and plunged their bathroom into darkness .

Planning officers said the application for the conservatory at Wharf Barn in Passage Road, Aust, near the Severn Bridge, north of Bristol, should be refused because the materials were “detrimental to the character and visual amenity of the area”. They said the structure was prominent to passers-by and that the black roof “exaggerated” its height, adding that the proposal to paint the upper black PVC panels white would be an improvement but not enough to “overcome fundamental design concerns ”, so it should. be rejected.

But the development management committee voted unanimously to grant permission on the condition that the new paintwork be done. In February, members deferred a decision while planning officers negotiated a new design with the owners, who were also told to carry out a flood risk assessment as Environment Agency maps suggested they were in a high risk area.

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When it returned for a decision, officers accepted that it was in fact in a low-risk area and dropped their opposition to floodplains, but argued that the greenhouse’s black panels did not match the stone common in buildings in area. Applicant Sheila Newby told the meeting: “Unfortunately, the application is retroactive as planning permissions restricting changes to both Wharf Barn and Wharf Lodge (attached) were sent to the previous owner of both homes, who applied for them after what Wharf Barn sold us.

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“Nothing was discovered by any search at the time of our purchase. We wouldn’t have continued if we had known.

“During the committee discussion in February we were asked to look at what options there are for any changes to the roof. It matches the roof of the Wharf Lodge and is designed to appear as a continuation of that roof.

“Any changes to the roof design would require us to rebuild the entire summerhouse and side garden. Everything would have to be demolished and the site cleared, a new steel frame would be needed to support the extreme weight of the flat roof, so basically we would have to build a whole new summer house from scratch, which is over 60,000 pounds for clearing and rebuilding for a design that constantly lets water in and floods the side garden.

“This does not seem like a balanced or reasonable outcome to us.” Ward Cllr Matthew Riddle (Conservative, Severn Vale) told the committee in a statement that he believed the owners had made a “real mistake” and misunderstood that the conservatory could be built without the need for planning consent through development rights permits.

Committee member Cllr Mike Drew (Lib Dem, Yate North) told officers: “You say it is quite prominent from the motorway but anyone driving past would have difficulty seeing it. The building next door appears to have a fairly similar colored roof.”

Writing to the council, neighbors on the adjacent farm said: “It has a major impact on our property which has been built so close to our boundary that the back of the building can touch our wall. From our bedroom window we can now see the back of a very unsightly building constructed of large black panels.

“Not quite the view you’d expect from your bedroom window and now it’s clearly blocking our view of the river. From our bathroom window, yes we have dark glass, but due to the height and proximity to our boundary and the blackness behind it, our bathroom is in the dark and now we have no natural light and have to turn the light on. on the day.

“The building looks like a bus shelter from the 60s, not at all in keeping with the property. There was talk of a nice structure erected in their garden, not something so awful as this.”