Gate to the driveway with alterations to the front walling

Appeal Decision Site visit made on 16 April 2019 by Mike Robins MSc BSc(Hons) MRTPI an Inspector appointed by the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government Decision date: 9th May 2019 Appeal Ref: APP/P4605/D/19/3221789 22A Blackroot Road, Sutton Coldfield, Birmingham B74 2QH • The appeal is made under section 78 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 against a refusal to grant planning permission. • The appeal is made by Mr Price against the decision of Birmingham City Council. • The application Ref 2018/08928/PA, dated 1 November 2018, was refused by notice dated 27 December 2018. • The development proposed is a gate to the driveway with alterations to the front walling. Decision 1. The appeal is dismissed. Main Issue 2. Whether the proposal would preserve or enhance the character or appearance of the Four Oaks Conservation Area. Reasons 3. The appeal site lies within the Four Oaks Conservation Area (the CA) and I have been provided with the associated Development Guidelines1. The area mostly comprises large, detached and individually designed housing in large plots. Extensive and mature landscaping to the plots and the tree-lined streets provide a strong spacious and verdant character. The significance of the CA is drawn largely from the traditional Arts and Crafts influenced architecture and its layout within a woodland setting. 4. Along Blackroot Road the front boundary treatments, although quite varied, nonetheless respond to and reinforce the essential character of the area, identified in the Development Guidelines as being ‘reticent and rustic’. Where these are of any significant height, they are either hedging, which contributes to the verdant character, or timber, which is a recessive and characteristic material. 5. The proposal would introduce a tall, flat bar aluminium fence and gate, which, despite its set back, would present a hard and uncharacteristically enclosing boundary, particularly when the gate is closed. While the newly-planted laurel may soften the incongruous material element of the scheme somewhat, it would not do so for the gate, and overall the impression of a stark and overtly modern addition to this strongly traditional area would remain. 1 Four Oaks Estate, Sutton Coldfield Development Guidelines, Birmingham City Council Appeal Decision APP/P4605/D/19/3221789 2 6. For this reason, I consider that the proposal would fail to preserve both the character and the appearance of the CA. While I note the appellant refers to a previous tall boundary hedge, this is no longer present and would not, in any case, have had a similar harmful impact as the proposal before me. 7. As a result, the proposal fails to comply with Policies PG3 and TP12 of the Birmingham Development Plan 2017, and Policy 3.14 C-D of the Birmingham Unitary Development Plan 2005. These policies seek design that responds to relevant guidelines and the local area context, including boundary treatments, and that values and protects the historic townscape. 8. The National Planning Policy Framework addresses harm to heritage assets, including CAs, and, in this case, I consider the harm I have identified would be less than substantial. Nonetheless, I must give such harm considerable importance and weight, and no clear arguments have been put to me of public benefits that could be considered to outweigh the harm. 9. Accordingly, for the reasons given above and having regard to all other matters raised, I conclude that the appeal should be dismissed. Mike Robins INSPECTOR