Harbour View, West Itchenor

Design and Access Statement

Design and Access Statement for proposed replacement dwelling at:

Harbour View Itchenor Road West Itchenor PO20 7DH

(Prepared by Mr and Mrs Goddard; Owners)

Contents:

1. Introduction

2. Site Location

3. Relevant Planning History

4. Layout Access and Scale

5. Materials and Finish

6. Sustainability and Ecology

1. Introduction

In August of 2020, we were granted permission to extend and remodel the existing property to bring it up to modern standards (see: WI/20/01699/DOM)

Our original motivation was to retain the existing property whilst enhancing the internal usability and flow of the property.

Since gaining permission for our renovations, it has become very clear to us that despite our best intentions, it is not possible to take a traditionally built property and bring it up to the current highest standards of thermal efficiency which is a key consideration given all our responsibilities to become carbon neutral over the next few years.

Therefore, we are now seeking permission to replace the existing property with a new, energy-efficient dwelling that is able to deliver high levels of thermal efficiency, using new building techniques and systems.

Given our love of the existing property and the fact that the prior application’s design was met with unanimous approval by our neighbours, Itchenor Parish Council, Harbour Conservancy and Council Planning Department, we are submitting new plans that retain the front and rear elevations of the existing approved design to ensure we are not overly increasing the silhouette or visible mass of the building.

Where possible, we will also retain certain features of the existing property internally and will be salvaging the most characterful features, such as the curved-aspect rooms in the roundel, the bevelled internal door glazing, the rose mirrors and wooden panelling to name a few.

However, as we are now proposing to build rather than renovate, there are a number of small changes to the prior approved design that make sense to improve the flow and usability of the property now and in the future. These changes also require some alterations to the ancillary buildings on the site and the access points which we also feel improve the overall property and impact on the surroundings.

In arriving at what we now hope is our final application, we are excited to start the project and deliver on what we expect to be our family home for many years to come.

Kind Regards

Noel and Kat Goddard

2. Site Location

The site is situated in the Parish of West Itchenor, under Chichester District Council. It is approximately 6 miles to the South of Chichester city centre and is located within the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.

The site itself is located midway between the A286 and West Itchenor village centre. As such the site does not sit within the Itchenor Conservation Area and is outside of any flood risk zones.

Aerial Site Map of Site

The property is a single title, outlined in Red in the image above.

The site is located in Character Area 4 as identified in the West Itchenor Village Design Statement (VDS), stated as being Itchenor Road from Goose Barn to Itchenor Gate House.

The property itself is mentioned under the Architecture and Buildings Category as no.17 “The Oast – an unusual 1940’s house”.

Itchenor village is characterised by a linear development of large detached houses, set back from the road with wide verges and hedged front boundaries. There is a wide variety of house design, mainly dating from the 1930’s onwards and with a numerous and varied roof designs.

The application site is one of the largest on the road and in the village at 0.665 Hectares, with the Itchenor Road running along the West boundary, farmland on the East boundary, a barren defined rural gap with footpath to the North of the site and field access track to the South respectively.

Itchenor Road facing North, showing road boundary with the site on the right.

The existing house and outbuildings sit predominantly in the southern half of the overall site. The site is relatively level with high hedges, shrubs and mature trees around the boundary of the plot other than the North East boundary which has a single fence-line allowing uninterrupted views over farmland towards Chichester Harbour.

The orientation of the existing main property is unusual compared to the houses to the South which all face West, although the houses directly North of the plot are not uniform, with some facing North, some South and the remaining two facing East and West respectively.

Proposed New Location of Property on the Site.

We are seeking to relocate the main property to a more central location (See Site Plan) in the plot, but within a few metres of the existing house footprint.

The location has numerous benefits such as:

I. The House will be set further back from Itchenor Road and be hidden from the South and the West by nature of the road being lower than the plot at this point.

For people walking or driving North on Itchenor Road, the property will be still be partially visible but this view will be less imposing than the existing property as the frontage of the house will be at an oblique angle and much further back from the South-West corner of our plot. Two large conifer trees also shield the new property from the road to a much greater degree than the existing property.

II. The new location enables the new property to be constructed before the demolition of the existing property. This will enable our family to live on-site during the build and therefore save thousands of pounds in unnecessary rental costs. As we are planning to act as project managers on the build process, this will be invaluable and should reduce delays in the construction and repeated journeys to and from the site.

III. The new property’s shell will be constructed using an ICF system that ensures the shell and roof build will take just a few weeks and require far fewer large deliveries than a traditional build process, dramatically reducing the impact of heavy lorries on neighbours.

IV. The proposed location of the new property places the new house behind a mature oak tree when viewed from the West, screening much of the property from our neighbours directly opposite.

The removal of the existing house will then improve the outlook for all close neighbours as the collection of trees to the South-East of the site will become visible, rather than their current view of the side of the existing house and the roof of the indoor pool enclosure (which is also being relocated).

V. The proposed location of the new property, whilst a few metres closer to the footpath to the North of the site, is still hidden from it by a 6ft fence and existing trees and hedges (see below images).

VI. The new orientation will present the house at an oblique angle to walkers approaching from the east across the field to the rear of the new property.

The location also places the new house directly behind a large Oak Tree on our eastern boundary to further minimize the impact to walkers. (see below images).

Finally, we will be planting Native Hedging (Blackthorn, Hawthorn, Alder mix) along the northern and partially eastern boundary to further shield the property.

VII. Whilst our ecology report noted no signs of bats in our existing property (See: Bat Survey & Ecological Appraisal) it did mention our wonderful migrating swallows that visit us every year.

By not demolishing the existing house until the end of the build of the new property (December 2021), we should ensure another season of these visitors and enable us to create new nesting locations for them on the new buildings in time for their arrival next year.

View from the west, standing on Itchenor Road

View travelling north on Itchenor Road

Views from the north footpath

Views from the east on footpath

3. Relevant Planning History

After the death of the original owner in 2012/13, the house was sold to a previous owner who explored the potential of a large, centrally placed replacement dwelling.

This was not given a favourable response in a Pre-Application, with specific mention of the design being too out of keeping, the buildings being overly distributed through the plot and the size of the dwelling being too large.

Having found another property, the previous owners then sold Harbour View to us and in 2019, we submitted a full planning application in May 2019 for a renovation of the existing house.

This proposal took on a life of its own and what started as a proposal for a modest refurbishment ended up being something else entirely. Had our submission last year been successful we would have lived to regret it as the renovations would have dominated the original house, losing much of the appeal of what exists today.

Following that withdrawn application, we did explore the potential of building a new “Passive House” but the resulting property did not deliver on our aspirations to have a new home with real character, no matter how well designed the new house would have been.

Whilst we received generally positive feedback in the Pre-Application for a replacement property, including the principles of relocation and a new access, the time taken merely cemented our decision to go back to our original plans, strip back those proposals based on the feedback given at the time by the Planning Officer and come back with a proposal that we believed enhanced what we had, rather than creating something out of character or overly developed as has been the underlying feedback on prior applications. The application was approved on 17th September 2020 (See: WI/20/01699/DOM)

Having been successful in that application to renovate the existing property, we have now decided to combine the best of both approaches and seek approval to build a new property with all the associated benefits from both an environmental thermal efficiency perspective and improved usability for how we live our lives today whilst retaining the look and feel of the approved renovations of the character property.

4. Layout Access and Scale

a) Main Property

Layout

We have increased the depth of the property by roughly 2 metres from the previously approved renovation of the existing property as this dramatically improves the internal flow and usability of the new property. The existing property was particularly narrow in the centre of the house with a room depth of as little as 2 metres at one point. This prevented us having a central hallway from which all rooms would lead which restricted the flow of the house.

By increasing the depth of the property by 2 metres, we are able to create a single hall on both the ground and first floor, dramatically improve the natural lighting in this area with a large window to the front of the house and also enables us to rotate the main family living area to the back of the house, which is the best aspect in terms of noise, views and privacy.

This increase in depth should have negligible impact on the surrounding areas we are only changing the side elevations of the design from that previously approved, whilst not changing the front or rear elevations.

Given the new positioning of the house (See: Site Plan), this increased depth will not be visible from Itchenor Road, from our neighbours opposite, nor from the East where approaching walkers would see the house in the distance from a footpath.

As the footpath moves past the North of the property, the increased side aspect of the replacement dwelling is completely screened by trees, bushes and a 6ft high fence and hence the increase in size would be hidden from view.

Our direct next-door neighbours to the South will also not be able to see this increase in depth due to the extensive trees to the South of the property and the fact we are moving the property further from their boundary.

The layout and scale of the alterations bring the property up to c. 400 SqM, creating a property that whilst larger than currently approved, is not overly so, given the extensive nature of the plot and the surrounding grounds. The increase over that previously approved is only 57 SqM and when taken in context with the dramatic improvement of both the flow, the increased distance from the road and our closest neighbour and the environment benefits of the new build, we hope this is a reasonable compromise.

Silhouette and Footprint

With the proposed reorientation of the main property, the key silhouette of the property will now be from Itchenor Road (west) and from the footpath (east). As these elevations are unchanged from the previously approved renovations, the impact is therefore limited to just 12% increase over the existing property.

Whilst the increase in depth of the property will increase the side elevations beyond the recommended level, as these silhouettes are not visible from either side of the property, we would hope that this increase in less relevant than the east or west elevations.

Equally the impact of the alterations on the footprint of the house is restricted to just 43% increase, whereas the previously approved renovations were 24% larger than the existing property.

Once again, given the minimal impact of the increases on the surrounding areas and viewpoints, we are hoping the increase can be viewed as reasonable given the improvements in other aspects of the property.

b) Ancillary Buildings

i. Relocation of Existing Indoor Pool, Garden Store and Pump Rooms

At present, the existing swimming pool enclosure, oil storage tank and two associated pump rooms are housed at the front of the plot adjoining the road. All these buildings are highly visible from Itchenor Road and present an eyesore for any walker or car passing the site.

We are proposing to consolidate all these structures into a single storey construction at the rear of the site. This will be well screened on all sides by hedging and a wide range of trees that exist today.

The proposed new location is currently a large concrete based chicken pen, with a chicken shed in poor repair and a few unproductive apple trees, some of which have blown over in the recent high winds.

The new building itself will be constructed using energy efficient technologies but will be clad in natural dark timber to ensure the building blends into the surrounding gardens.

Whilst closer to our neighbours to the South, the new building will be visible only from the South and their property has no windows directly opposite this location. From this viewpoint we only see the side of their garage and annex which are both built on the boundary of their property with no side access.

We will then demolish the existing swimming pool enclosure and pump rooms. The majority of the area will then be laid to grass and trees but will also form the location for a new replacement driveway and turning area (See: Site Plan) ii. Construction of a Double Garage

At present, the property has three garages incorporated within the existing house which will be demolished.

We are proposing to build a new separate double garage on the West side of the site, constructed using a timber clad exterior to soften the visual impact.

The garage will be well screened from the footpath to the East and from the road to the North and South.

It will only be partially visible when viewed directly from the west of the site but we will be planting a native hedgerow along our Western boundary that will screen the garage completely in time once the hedgerow has filled in over the next 2-3 years. iii. Relocation of Garden Store, Fruit Cages and Greenhouse

We are creating a large working garden in the North West corner of the site, which will include a large fruit cage and herb garden.

Currently we have two large fruit cages and a Garden Store/Greenhouse that all are situated on or near the East boundary. We are proposing to relocate these all to the North/West corner of the plot.

c) Access and Driveways

We are proposing to change the existing entry point at the South-West corner of our property by moving it 3 metres to the West. This does not change the entry point onto Itchenor Road, which will remain the same as the existing gate and driveway.

We are also proposing to change an existing access on the West side from pedestrian to vehicular as this will enable towed boats and trailers to enter and exit the site easily. This access point was accepted by The Highways Agency in a previous application for a replacement dwelling that we subsequently withdrew (see: WI/19/01530/DOM)

This access point already has a road surface that bridges the drainage ditch running to the west of the site and cars, lorries and vans often are to be seen on this area of the Highway.

Our amendments therefore are simply to replace our existing fence and gate that abuts this area of Highway with a wider gate for vehicles to access. The proposed driveway and parking area inside our site will ensure there is sufficient parking and turning areas inside this new access to negate any issues relating to vehicles accessing Itchenor Road safely.

The new driveways and proposed alterations do not increase the overall area of hard surfaces when considered compared to the existing property’s extensive driveway, parking and hardstanding to the south and east of the existing house.

In addition, we will be using a permeable driveway material solution, replacing the widely used tarmac and concrete surfaces that exist today, which are non- permeable.

5. Design, Materials and Finish

As previously approved, we will maintain the same look and feel of the existing property as would have been achieved by our renovations. The new property will maintain much of the existing property’s character, materials and finish whilst improving the experience of living in the house in the 21st century.

A key visual enhancement that we committed to previously was a return to aluminium/aluminium-finished windows and doors, replacing the white, uPVC units that were installed 20 years ago in the existing building. These new windows will be more in keeping with the original property but will aim to achieve suitable levels of energy insultation throughout the property.

It is proposed that these new windows and doors will be painted a mid- to dark- grey colour to ensure that they are in keeping with a number of surrounding properties whilst retaining the art-deco feel of the original house.

The new property will be given a White-Rendered finish, matching the existing property and the windows and doors will follow a more traditional approach in terms of placement and size of openings, all in line with the previous approval.

One exception is the replacement of two casement double doors in the master bedroom and the sitting room to the rear of the property with large sliding doors. Given the remainder of the property will retain traditional aluminium style casement windows throughout, we would not consider this to be over-glazed or out of character when viewed along side the rear aspects of many of the properties on the east side of Itchenor Road and the south side of Spinney Lane.

We feel this addition is a visual cue to the fact the property is a new building but whilst retaining all the key aspects of the original “renovated” style.

The roof will be covered in the reclaimed clay tiles from the existing house supplemented by other reclaimed tiles to match the existing roof covering of the property and most of the surrounding houses.

The balconies that were approved in the recent application for renovation have been carried across, with a small addition to the north of the proposed new property. This balcony will overlook the proposed Herb Garden and will not negatively impact any neighbouring property as it is shielded by the oak tree to the front and a small Cat-Slide roof.

6. Sustainability and Ecology

The key driver for the change in our development approach is to attain a much higher level of sustainability and reduced carbon footprint for the property than would be possible by renovating the existing house.

We will be utilising a building system that will ensure minimal heat loss from the property supported by an air-sourced heat pump rather than the existing gas-fired heating system, combined with a mechanical ventilation system to ensure we can reduce our impact on the wider environment.

In addition, we will construct the new indoor pool building as an energy efficient building, requiring no more than air-source heating and thereby removing the existing oil-burning pool heating system in place today. This has environmental benefits in terms of removing the existing carbon footprint of burning low-grade oil and the carbon footprint of the frequent lorry deliveries of the oil.

Finally, we will be installing a bio-filtration system for the pool that removes the need for chemicals to be added to the water in the pool. Once again, this is a more natural solution to maintaining a healthy swimming environment and reduces the amount of additional chemicals released into the local eco-system.

The relocation of the main house has minimal impact on the existing ecology and surrounding areas of the property, given that the new building site is located on an existing flat grass area.

Once demolished, the site of the existing house will be laid to lawn and with the removal of the surrounding concrete hard standing to the East of the property, this will materially increase the proportion of grassed area on the site as a whole.

We are also undertaking a significant amount of planting of native hedges along boundaries and within the site as a whole to encourage an increase in the bio-diversity of the site.

The addition of a Herb Garden is driven by our active participation of ayurvedic principles but also encourages even greater bio-diversity in terms of plants, wildlife and insect populations.

The proposed Indoor Swimming Pool will necessitate the removal of c.10 old and poor condition apple trees from the back of the plot but these will be replaced on a like for like basis with new trees to the north east of the plot.

We will also be planting a wild meadow to the north of the plot, to encourage greater levels of wildlife and diversity in our gardens as a whole.

Finally, a recent Bat Survey showed no evidence of bats living within the existing property or surroundings but there is an existing condition to provide additional habitats within our site which will be delivered in the new proposed scheme.

This report did highlight the existing house has been home to numerous migrating swallows over the past few years. By retaining the existing property during the build of our new property, we will be able to have these visitors return for this summer and then provide nesting boxes in the eaves of the new property/outbuildings where possible as we would hope to see these visitors return for many years to come.