AN APPLICANT who sought planning permission for three new houses by submitting two separate proposals has faced a roadblock after the council gave the green light to only one house and threw out the plan for the other two.

The first application included a plan to demolish an existing bungalow, workshop and garage to build a detached four-bedroom house and garage in Meadow View, Sherfield Road, Bramley.

The second application was to build two semi-detached two-bedroom bungalows and create a new access by demolishing a greenhouse in the same site on Meadow View.

Both applications came up before a development control committee meeting of Basingstoke and Deane Borough Council on Wednesday, April 10.

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The councillors decided to approve the plan for the four-bedroom house but decided to throw out the second application.

The applications faced objections from Bramley Parish Council.

Addressing the committee members, parish councillor Chris Flooks said the first application on a 'standalone basis was not a problem', but there are problems with the second application.

“Reading the papers associated with this application, it gives the impression throughout that this is a single application on a plot of land, but it is only on half of what is available and it is all a deceitful ploy to get it accepted on the knowledge that the second application will be treated on the same basis,” he said.

But he asked the committee to reject the application for two extra houses saying the inappropriate extra housing would overfill the narrow plot.

Borough ward councillor Chris Tomblin, who spoke to the committee, said he could not see how the council can separate the two applications.

“This should be a standalone application [for all three houses] that we can assess without the influence of the other application,” he said.

However, the planning officers advised the committee that the applications should be treated separately.

The applicant, Howard Williamson, said the proposal for the four-bedroom house would provide a 'much-improved replacement dwelling' to the existing house and will reintroduce a property back into the local housing supply after two decades of lying unoccupied.

“It wasn’t some rules to try and get around a complete development site. The idea was to give flexibility in development going forward. It may well be that none of these proposals go ahead,” he said, defending the reason to submit two applications.

Debating, Cllr Paul Miller said the first application was designed in association with the other application.

“We can't get it out of our mind that this is all connected whether you like it or not.  This is a constructed mechanism of facilitating three houses.”

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Cllr Nick Robinson, who said he didn’t see a viable reason to refuse the first application, said the second one is a cramped form of development.

“It's out of keeping with the rest of the local housing,” he added.

The committee ultimately approved the proposal for the four-bed house but refused the application for two semi-detached houses.

The two applications can be searched with reference numbers 23/02907/FUL and 23/02946/FUL on BDBC's planning portal.