Residents question council over alleged “factual inaccuracies”
An MLA has accused a developer of attempted “town cramming” over an application for two new houses on the outskirts of East Belfast.
The Belfast City Council Planning Committee, held this week, voted to refuse an application for the demolition of four garages to facilitate the erection of two semi-detached dwellings on lands between 14 and 16 Lancedean Road, beside Rocky Road, which travels into the County Down countryside.
The application, by Tera Developments, of Donegall Square North, Belfast, failed on a knife-edge vote at City Hall. On an Alliance proposal to refuse the application there were 10 votes in support, from Alliance, the DUP and UUP, and nine against, that is, nine wanting the application to be accepted, from Sinn Féin and the SDLP.
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Council officers recommended the application for approval, and none of the statutory consultees had any objections, including NI Water. A residential application had been previously approved at the site, but construction had not taken place.
There were 11 letters of objection to the new application, including one from Alliance MLA Paula Bradshaw. She raised concerns about overdevelopment and what she described as “town cramming”.
She said the proposal was out of character with the existing low density housing in the area, said there were issues with design, scale and massing, and added there would be a loss of privacy and overshadowing problems for neighbouring residents. She raised landscape and environmental concerns, land stability and construction risks, and parking and traffic impacts.
The council officer report states: “The principle of residential development has been established on site under previous planning applications. (A previous) development approved is extant and will expire on 21/06/2025.
“Although the extant approval was for one residential unit, the proposed footprint is similar to that of the previously approved dwelling. The footprint of the single dwelling was 106 metres squared and the footprint of the proposed dwellings is 103 metres squared in total.”
It adds: “Policy relating to density advises that within the outer Belfast area the average density for residential development is 25 to 125 units per hectare. The site measures 0.1 hectare which would relate to an acceptable density of at least 2.5 dwellings on site. The proposal therefore falls just below the recommended density for a site of this area.
“The proposal replicates the existing densities on this portion of the street which predominantly houses semi-detached properties on similar sized plots of land. Taking account of the sloping nature of the site and surrounding context, the proposed density is on balance considered acceptable.
“The proposed development accommodates the topography in an acceptable manner using split-level design, comparable to neighbouring dwellings. The Residential Design SPG is supportive of the use of split-level dwellings on sloping sites which do not require prominent retaining walls. In terms of layout, scale, proportions, massing and appearance of buildings the scheme is acceptable.”
The planning officer states in the report: “There are no concerns of overlooking or overshadowing from the development.”
A local resident, representing the “17 households most affected,” said at the meeting: “We want to raise serious concerns about the case officer’s report. There are factual inaccuracies the committee has before them.
“Firstly the size has been overestimated, the case officer states it is 0.1 hectares, equating to at least two and a half dwellings. The site is in fact only 0.03 hectares, some three times smaller, and this has been confirmed by a chartered architect.
“The proposal for a three storey development of two semi-detached dwellings, with a total of six bedrooms, four en suites and two bathrooms on a small site, on a deep slope, is massively out of scale and pushes the structure right to the boundaries of neighbouring properties.”
The committee delegated authority to council planning officers to detail the official refusal reasons, which will focus on density and layout.
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