At last a victory for good sense and innovation over dogmatic and backward planning decisions.

GA has won an appeal for a striking new dwelling in Peterston-super-Ely. The building is unusual in that it combines a variety of technologies to deliver a sustainable building, on a relatively small plot of land.

The form of the building was driven by the need to provide private amenity; avoid overlooking of neighbours; and fit into the street scene. The building is part earth sheltered and features a large south facing energy collector and heat store.

All of the local authorities planning guidelines were followed yet the scheme was still refused permission.

Whilst we always try to work with local planning officers rather than against them, we felt that in this case authority was being needlessly restrictive. The appeals officer of the Welsh Assembly agreed with us and rejected the planners’ case within two weeks.

The appeal hearing itself provided us with an interesting insight into planning officers’ thinking. We discovered that our scheme was ‘interesting but a step too far’; that it was ‘too modern’; and interestingly, we also heard the planning officer’s definition of acceptable modern design – ‘architects should look at the adjacent buildings, sort of copy them, but give them a bit of a modern twist…’ We are grateful for this advice and intend to follow it with our next application.

The owner of the plot intends to put up the scheme for auction with Watts and Morgan at the end of November – anyone wanting to commission a cutting edge low energy design in a beautiful location now has an opportunity to do so.

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