Hi everyone - the final date for commenting about this application on the planning inspectorate website is 24th June.
A number of local people objected to the planning application for 122 Myddleton Road. The landlord applied to convert a 3 bed flat on 1st and 2nd floors into a 2 bed flat on the 1st floor and a 1 bed on the 2nd floor. This was rejected by the council and the landlord has appealed to the planning inspectorate.
We are all able to add comments to the case on the Planning Inspectorate website, and it will strongly support the council’s case if lots of us write against the landlords planning application. There have been a number of cases where the planning inspectorate has overturned the council’s rejection of a planning application
Appeal Reference: APP/Y5420/A/14/2218345
You can go direct to the page for this appeal by clicking on the link below (or copying it directly into your web browser)
You can see details about the application itself on the Haringey planning website (including the officers report) here:
You can write as little detail or as much as you like. The Planning sub group of We Love Myddleton Road has listed below some main points from our understanding of Planning policy in Haringey and also the London Plan, and you may wish to include some of these points in your comments. Please don't let the detail below put you off, you can just write brief comments.
- The councils adopted Unitary Development Plan (Saved Policies 2013) Policy HSG11 lists Myddleton Road as an area ‘now experiencing problems of extreme parking pressure and a significant adverse effect on residential amenity’ and states that planning permission will not be granted for further conversions in this area. Myddleton Road is already overcrowded with cramped accommodation since many properties have been converted into small flats. Rubbish is regularly left on the street from the many households who live there. This over-crowding is causing significant harm to the prospects of this street regenerating for the benefit of the local community.
- HSG11 also notes that having many conversions in one area can result in a loss in family housing. Haringey Housing Supplementary Planning Document 2008 (7.3) notes ‘There is evidence of an increasing poor match between the need for larger dwellings and the development of smaller units’. The 1st and 2nd floors of 122 Myddleton Rpad is currently a 3 bed flat with garden access which is very suitable for families. The street has many small flats and I am concerned that the community that lives in the street above and behind the shops is becoming quite unbalanced because landlords are converting too many properties to smaller units. Flats above shops are generally cheaper to rent than houses and so it’s also likely to lead to the loss of more affordable family housing.
- The Unitary Development Plan Appendix 1, Car Parking for Conversions, specifies that for a 1 bedroom flat, there should be 1 car parking space, and for a 2 bedroom flat 1.2 spaces. A 3 bed flat, which is what is on site currently should have 1.5 spaces. Therefore there should now be an extra car parking space but no parking provision is to be made available, which means that tenants of the flats will be likely to park in already overcrowded neighboring streets
- The council officer’s report notes that the floor space of the proposed first floor 2 bed flat is 48 sq m, and of the proposed 2nd floor 1 bed flat is 33 sq m. The London Plan minimum for a 2 bed flat is 60 Sq m, and for a 1 bed 50 sq m. Both flats therefore fall below minimum space standards as set out in the London Plan. The London Housing Supplementary Planning Guidance (SPG) 2012 notes (2.1.15) “When considering application of LP standards in Boroughs which already have their own standards, the LP standards should be used as minima”
- Haringey Housing Supplementary Planning Document 2008 section 8.6 Layout states that flats should be laid out in such a way as to minimize noise between them and that bedrooms should be placed above bedrooms. The proposed living room of the 2nd floor flat is above one of the bedrooms in the first floor flat and this layout is therefore unsuitable, and is likely to cause noise disturbance to the occupants of the proposed 1st floor flat
6. The application proposes to install UPVC windows. This is a conservation area and CSV5 of the Haringey UDP policies states that alterations in conservation areas must "retain or reinstate characteristic features such as doors, windows or materials of buildings." Installing UPVC windows would therefore not be appropriate.
David - on behalf of We Love Myddleton Road Planning Sub-group