Festing Road Residents Object to House Extension Plans

Scheme involves a roof terrace and air conditioning units

Festing Road in Putney. Picture: Google Streetview

July 19, 2024

Neighbours in Putney's Festing Road are objecting to plans for roof and side extensions to a mid-terrace property in the street.

A scheme has been submitted to Wandsworth Council to add a bedroom and two bathrooms to the house by building a back roof extension and a single-storey side extension. The plans also involve a rear roof terrace and the installation of a back garden air conditioning unit.

The council is seeking comments on the plans until 25 July, and has already received eight objections from neighbours in Festing Road and Rotherwood Road.

In pre-application advice given to the applicants they were told by Wandsworth council planner Samuel Bradley, "The principle of a single-storey rear/side extension would not be objected to. It is acknowledged that several properties within the terrace have similar extensions at ground floor level, meaning that the proposed development would likely conform to the prevailing local spatial character."

But he warned that the height of the proposed extension "would likely be considered excessive", and added "a full assessment would need to be undertaken as part of any planning application to confirm that the amenities of neighbouring occupiers would not be unduly harmed in any way as a result of the proposed development."

One resident in Rotherwood Road, which backs onto the property, said the scheme would be detrimental to local residents. They stated, " A roof terrace would be an overdevelopment and intrusion causing noise, disturbance and loss of privacy to the neighbours and also creating a precedent for other houses in the neighbourhood.

"The installation of an AC unit at the end of the property's garden is objectionable on the grounds of its location and associated noise of the plant and machinery. Most properties install these on the walls or roofs of their own buildings, but this is as far away as possible from the main house, making it physically a lot closer to, and noisier for, immediate neighbours on Rotherwood Road."

Neighbours in Festing Road also said the development would affect their privacy, especially after the applicant has recently removed a tree. "While we are a set of terraced houses which back on to other terraced houses which means we are currently somewhat overlooked, we do not want to add further to being overlooked by a rear terrace directly adjacent to our garden," said one objector.

Other comments included a call for the screening around the balcony to be 1.7m in height, rather than the 1.1m proposed in the application.

A Plant Noise Assessment prepared on behalf of the applicant said that a noise survey demonstrated the AC unit would produce a likely noise level of 29 dBA (the scale used for judging loudness) for a Rotherwood Road resident, against standard limits of 30 dBA.

You can make your own comments by searching for application number 2024/2216 on Wandsworth Council's planning explorer.