Grayshott House, Bampton

Background

The development site comprised an area of garden land which was previously part of the garden to a Grade II Listed Building and was in the conservation area. Planning permission had previously been secured for a 4 -bedroom detached dwelling on the site, which showed support for the principle of development.

The challenge

The application site is within a conservation area and in close proximity to a Grade II Listed Building. The significance of the conservation area includes the historic and architectural qualities of many of the listed and other notable buildings and the historic layout of the village.
Additionally, the planning application was objected to by the Parish Council due to the design not being in keeping sufficiently with the vernacular architecture and being extremely ‘untypical’ so much so that ‘at no other part of the conservation area would anything like this be found-even on a back land location’.

The solution

We engaged the Council in pre- application discussions, where a positive outcome was secured and supporting comments from both the planning officer and Council’s conservation architect were made.

Following this, a planning application was submitted which was supported by a thorough planning and heritage statement and design and access statement. As comments from various consultants were published, the project team worked to address any concerns quickly and ensure that the application could progress positively.

The result

The application went to the Lowlands Area Planning Committee where, following the reading of a committee statement on behalf of the client which we prepared, it was approved.