'Round the houses' house turned down for planning permission in Northumberland

The proposed site of the home in Tughall, with the approximate access track in red. Picture from Google Maps

Plans for a one-and-a-half-storey, four-bedroom house north-west of The Granary, at Tughall Steads, were turned down by six votes to three at a meeting of the North Northumberland Local Area Council.

Members were told that the North Northumberland Coast Neighbourhood Plan has a policy allowing single homes, so long as they are principle residences, in hamlets like Tughall, which lies to the east of Chathill.

However, the scheme was recommended for refusal, mainly due to the proposed access track, which would run from the road across a field before turning 90 degrees and running across another field and into the site.

The planning officer said this would be ‘an unacceptable layout’ and that it would have ‘an urbanising effect on the rural setting’.

Richard Swann, of Barton Willmore, on behalf of an objecting neighbour, said: “The policy allows for single dwellings in hamlets like this, but not without due consideration.”

He added that the access ‘literally goes around the houses’ and that ‘we have specific reservations over the location of the dwelling itself’.

However, the applicant’s agent, Jason Gibbons, said that the proposal does not create a new access point and there are no alterations to the existing field walls.

Beadnell Parish Council had supported the application ‘with reservations’, while the ward member, Coun Guy Renner-Thompson, didn’t have a problem with the access.

At the meeting, councillors also approved the conditions which will apply to the outline planning permission for up to five homes at Christon Bank Farm.

None were previously prepared, given that it had been recommended for refusal by planning officers and there had been outstanding issues, but the committee decided to approve it last April.

Three other applications were due to be decided at the meeting, but were withdrawn at late notice – two in Beadnell due to the recent creation of a conservation area and one in Embleton due to the plans being amended.