34-36 Bedford Road, London SW4 - Lambeth Council

no. 3 Aristotle Road are to a stairwell, reducing the potential for loss of privacy
here. The distance between habitable room windows for the properties from 11-
23 Aristotle Road are over 30m away, and at no.9 Aristotle Road the proposed
windows are 19.3m away from the closest point, this is not considered to result
in an unacceptable impact on overlooking or privacy between these houses.
The properties from 54-72 Bedford Road are set at an obscure angle, and due
to this arrangement should not result in any loss of privacy between the
windows. To the north, there is a 17m separation distance with Cadmus House
which exceeds the 16.5m distance between the three storey properties across
Aristotle Road, and therefore given the surrounding context, this relationship is
considered to be acceptable and the levels of overlooking would be similar to
those in the surrounding area. Overall it is considered that whilst there would be
windows in close proximity to the rear of 1-7 Aristotle Road, this report
concludes that, on balance, the proposed development would not have such a
negative impact on overlooking and privacy to neighbouring properties to justify
refusal on this ground.
11 Impact on the amenity of neighbouring properties in terms of loss of
sunlight/daylight, overlooking and loss of privacy and sense of enclosure
11.1 The applicants have submitted a daylight and sunlight assessment, which
demonstrates that there would not be any detrimental impacts to the daylight
and sunlight of the majority of the surrounding rooms. However, a total of 11
windows would not pass the required daylighting VSC standard. All but one of
these windows are located to the north-east elevation of the properties at 1-7
Aristotle Road and the affected windows generally serve kitchens or are
secondary windows to kitchen/living/dining rooms. Additionally one window at
the ground floor south-east elevation at 3 Aristotle Road would not pass the
VSC standards. This would achieve an appropriate Average Daylight Factor
(1%) for a bedroom, which is the likely use of this room. Two windows fail the
APSH tests, one located at the ground floor south-east elevation at 3 Aristotle
Road and one at the ground floor of 27 Cadmus Close. The impact on the
amenity of these properties is regrettable, however on balance given the
infrequency of this occurance it is considered that this would not be sufficient to
refuse planning permission on this basis given the planning benefits that would
be accrued by this scheme.
12.2 Balconies are proposed to the west elevation of the proposed block, however,
as detailed above, a condition is recommended to ensure that screening is put
in place which should also be required to mitigate any potential for any loss of
privacy or overlooking back to the Bedford Road properties from the proposed
balconies.
12.3 The proposed building would result in the development of an area which is
currently used as a car parking area, therefore any buildings on this site will
alter the relationship with the nearby dwellings. However, due to the separation
distances between the main aspect of the nearby buildings (which are set out
above), and the design of the building which steps back away from the closest
properties at Cadmus Close and 1-7 Aristotle Road, it is not considered that the
increased sense of enclosure would exist to the extent that would justify the
refusal of planning permission on these grounds.