A Sussex woman has failed in her High Court attempt to resurrect plans to build a detached house next to her home in Hassocks. The court has backed a planning inspector’s finding that the second building would be “cramped and squeezed in”.
Joan Martin had asked Sullivan J to quash the inspector’s decision to back Mid Sussex District Council’s refusal of planning permission for her to build the new house, to the side of her home, Thatchetts, at 78 Keyner Road, Hassocks.
She claimed that the inspector had been wrong to find that the development, which would involve the demolition of an attached garage and other outbuildings on her property, would not be in keeping with the area.
She also claimed that the inspector had been wrong to conclude that if the new property were to require a garage it would have to be placed in front of the house and would therefore create a discordant element in the street scene.
She claimed that, even though the new house would measure only 9m<sup>2</sup> x 8m<sup>2</sup>, it was always intended that if a garage were required, it would be integral to the house, and that, even if it were sited to the front of the property, it could be screened so as not to look out of place in the locality.
Rejecting her challenge, the judge said: “Rather than three properties all set in spacious grounds and having distinct local characters of their own, squeezed into the space between two of these properties there would be the new property… in my judgment, the inspector’s findings are totally understandable.”
On the issue of garage, he stated: “On the basis that most new properties these days require garages, it seems to me that the inspector cannot be criticised for reaching the conclusion that he did, namely that should the property require a garage, this would be likely to be sited in front of the property.”
Spencer v First Secretary of State Queen’s Bench Division: Administrative Court (Sullivan J) 6 May 2003.
References: PLS News 6/5/03
