Objection to Sea Road Garage Development

Planning Objection Letter
click image to enlarge

It is easy to miss, but between the Community Centre and Sea Road Car Park, is an old wooden garage on a narrow strip of land.

It hardly looks big enough for a garage, but a planning application has been lodged with the New Forest District Council to build a house with parking on the site. 

The trustees of the Community Centre have lodged an objection to this application which you can read on the image to the right. (If your eyesight is good enough!)

If you want to make your own individual comment, you can do so by emailing: dev.control@nfdc.gov.uk (or write to: Development Control Appletree Court, Beaulieu Road, Lyndhurst, SO43 7PF)

Community Centre Planning Objection letter in full:

Reference: 16/10068

Land adjacent Community Centre 9 Sea Road Milford on Sea

House, parking; demolition of existing garage

The Trustees of Milford on Sea Community Centre object to the above planning application.

They agree with the planning officer’s observation that the proposed dwelling is cramped, awkward and dominant and consider the proposal an inappropriate development of the site.

The close proximity of the proposed dwelling to the Community Centre would have an adverse effect on the amenity of the Community Centre and be visually detrimental to the street scene in which the Community Centre is a significant focal point.

The design and access statement supplied by the applicants states that the new dwelling would be adjacent to other and similar two storey residential dwellings and therefore would be ‘appropriate’ in its setting. This is factually incorrect. There are no such residential dwellings adjacent to this site. It is bounded by a car park, public lavatories and the Community Centre. The nearest dwelling is a bungalow set well back in its garden on the opposite side of the road. There is a house at the far side of the guide hut situated at the end of a long drive. The Trustees therefore consider that a residential dwelling in this location would in fact be inappropriate.

In addition the Trustees consider that the quality of life for future residents of the proposed new dwelling would be compromised not only, as the planning officer comments, by the presence of the adjacent public lavatories and the car park but also by a very active and busy Community Centre.

The footfall to the Community Centre exceeds 40,000 a year and continues to grow; the Centre is in use continuously from 9am and often up to 11pm. The Trustees are therefore most concerned that cars reversing either onto or off the proposed parking area would create an additional hazard for the many pedestrians who must walk in front of the site to the entrance to the Community Centre from the car park or from the village.

The design and access statement suggests that the site will remain vacant if this application fails. The Trustees consider that future community use of the site would be both viable and appropriate to meet the need for expanding community activities.

Bob Bishop

Chair of Trustees Milford on Sea Community Centre