Design and Access

Statement

In Support of a Planning Application for

House extension /
Replacement & Relocation of
existing lawful mobile home
Shoreside Bungalow
Prestolee Road
Bolton
M26 1FJ

1. Site Description
Shoreside Bungalow is a detached residence on the quiet and secluded Prestolee
Road in Bolton. There is currently a yard to the rear providing equestrian stabling
and tack shop.
Adjacent to the bungalow on its south eastern elevation, and outside the domestic
curtilage is a lawful caravan which has been in situ and used as ancillary
accommodation for over ten years.
The site has just been purchased by a large family who wish to extend the house and
adjust the currently disjointed layout to suit their needs.
2. Amount
There are two elements to this planning application:

An extension to the existing bungalow

Relocation & replacement of the existing mobile home

3. Layout
The proposed works to the bungalow will provide a flexible amount of living
accommodation for the family. It will create four bedrooms with separate living and
kitchen spaces to accommodate the growing family. Two sections of the existing
bungalow will be removed, and one extension added.
All these works will increase the living area of the bungalow from 107.4 square
metres to 151.2 square metres. This size is not excessive and fits comfortably within
the large plot.
The replacement mobile home will be slightly larger as per the attached plans. It will
be clad in timber effect cladding which will blend more suitably into its rural setting
compared to the bright tin cladding on the existing.
It is proposed to relocate the mobile home 25m south west for the following
reasons:

The site of the existing mobile home is very steep and not suitable in terms of
gradient. The existing mobile home has to be supported at one end by a
series of concrete blocks which are unstable and look unsightly. The
proposed new location is flat and hard. It will provide a much safer base for
the structure.
Due to the proposed extension, the relocation of the caravan will
compensate for the additional bulk added to the house, meaning that the
visual impact from the roadside will remain largely the same as it does at
present.

The proposed location of the new mobile home will also act as an increased
security measure for the equestrian shop in the yard at night times.

It should be noted that the siting of the mobile home in the yard area will not add to
the built environment of the existing buildings, as two smaller storage structures will
be removed from site and replaced by the mobile home.
Furthermore, another application is shortly to be submitted for this site, which will
see many of the dilapidated buildings in the yard removed and replaced by a smaller
number of more modest buildings with a better layout. All these works combined
will greatly add to the visual amenity of the surrounding area and in turn improve
the quality and openness of the Green Belt.
4. Scale

The size of the extension would lead to an additional floor space of 43.8 sq
metres (Current 107.4 sq mtrs / Proposed 151.2 sq mtrs).
The new mobile home would provide an extra 5.4 square metres when
compared to the existing (Current 41.4 sq mtrs / Proposed 46.8 sq mtrs).

5. Landscaping
There is a vast amount of existing natural screening on the roadside as shown below.
The bungalow itself is very well screened from all vantage points.

View from the bottom of the driveway

View of front garden from Prestolee Road

For this reason, no further landscaping is proposed as a result of this application.

6. Appearance
Currently the bungalow is dilapidated and requires a lot of work. It is proposed to
redesign the faade of the existing bungalow, add the extension and alter the facing
materials to increase its visual appeal.

Existing House

Existing Front Elevation

Proposed Front Elevation

The applicant intends to give the entire site an overhaul and bring it back up to its
full potential.

7. Access
Access to all development is via the existing private driveway from Prestolee Road.
There is adequate space for the turning and manoeuvring of large vehicles and for

emergency services if they are ever required. There is good visibility when leaving
the site and joining Prestolee Road, which is a quiet piece of road.
8. Policy
The essence of Bury Green Belt policies is to prevent urban sprawl by keeping land
permanently open, protecting the countryside and assisting in moving towards more
sustainable patterns of urban development. This development strives towards these
targets by providing a more sustainable, energy efficient, secure and visually
attractive site. The built environment will not be increased as structures are being
removed from site to compensate for any additions.
The NPPF states that the Green Belt serves five purposes:
to check the unrestricted sprawl of large built-up areas;
to prevent neighbouring towns merging into one another;
to assist in safeguarding the countryside from encroachment;
to preserve the setting and special character of historic towns; and
to assist in urban regeneration, by encouraging the recycling of derelict and
other urban land.
This application is consistent with these objectives and is not seeking to apply for
anything outside of these set parameters.
The NPPF also states that local planning authorities should regard the construction
of new buildings as inappropriate in Green Belt. Exceptions to this rule include the
extension or alteration of a building provided that it does not result in
disproportionate additions over and above the size of the original building, and the
replacement of a building, provided the new building is in the same use and not
materially larger than the one it replaces. The two elements of this application fall
within these exceptions.
Once Green Belts have been defined, local planning authorities should plan
positively to enhance it. This area of Prestolee Road is presently very unattractive in
a visual sense. One of the sole purposes of this application is to enhance the setting
of the bungalow and the surrounding grounds, which will in turn enhance the wider
area and contribute to achieving Green Belt policy objectives.
Bury Policy H2/3 Extensions and Alterations
Applications for house extensions and alterations will be considered with regard to
the following factors:
a) the size, height, shape, design and external appearance of the proposal;
b) the character of the property in question and the surrounding area;
c) the amenity of adjacent properties; and
d) visibility for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers of motor vehicles.
Due to the location of Shoreside Bungalow, there are no nearby neighbours whose
privacy would be reduced as a result of this development. The house is also over

28m from the roadside currently, and even after the extension is complete will still
be 22m from the roadside. This extension will in no way affect the visibility for
motorists or cyclists on Prestolee Road or those entering / leaving the site. For this
reason the erection of an extension that extends beyond the front wall of the
existing property is thought appropriate in this case.
The size of the plot is extensive and the existing bungalow sits at the rear of the
domestic curtilage, hindering extensions to the rear. The proposed extension will fit
subtly within this plot and is of an appropriate scale when assessed against the
curtilage and its surroundings. The proposed style of the house after the
development is completed is more in keeping with its rural setting than the
quintessentially 1960s bungalow that presently exists.
In relation to the mobile home, Burys SPGs state that careful consideration should
be given to the impact of a new building when viewed from several locations in both
the immediate vicinity and the wider countryside. The view of the proposal from
main roads, public footpaths and settlements will be given significant weight when
assessing planning applications. These points have been taken into account when
siting the new mobile home, and it will have a reduced visual impact when compared
to the existing.
On sloping sites it is general practice to align a building parallel with the contours
and use cut and fill as opposed to under-building. The existing mobile home is
contrary to both these criteria, being at right angles to the contours and using underbuilding to counteract the sloping site, accentuating its visual impact. The new
position of the mobile home will eliminate these issues.
Bury policies state that existing trees and hedgerows should be retained where
possible and new buildings should respect the existing field boundary pattern. There
is already a vast amount of landscaping and natural shielding that shields both the
proposed extension and mobile home from public vantage points. This will be
retained. In addition, the new position of the mobile home will help to clarify the
domestic / agricultural boundaries on site. At present the domestic curtilage seems
to spill into the adjacent paddock due to the location of the mobile home, and it is
unclear from public vantage points as to where the exact boundary lies (see below).

Each application should be considered on its own merits. It is believed that this
application complies with current policy guidelines, and that any slight deviation
from these guidelines is compensated by the secluded setting of the house, the size
of curtilage and the intentions of the applicant to spend a vast amount of money
increasing the quality of this piece of Green Belt.