Harbour View, West Itchenor Design and Access Statement Design and Access Statement for proposed replacement dwelling at: Harbour View Itchenor Road West Itchenor Chichester 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 Chichester District 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 Chichester Harbour 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.