myKnaphillOn 26 November the Planning Committee approved the building of a one bedroom house in the rear garden of 48 Lower Guildford Road. The new dwelling will in fact be in Wood Lane. This was the fourth attempt by the owner of 48 Lower Guildford Road to build in their garden. The last attempt in 2013 was rejected and an appeal was overturned. This time round Katie Dunk, a Planning Officer from WBC, recommending approval. In her report to the Planning Committee the Planning Officer had selected a number of points from the decision of the Planning Inspectors report that had rejected the last proposal and outlined how the developer had made changes. One such change was the fact that the height of the building had been reduced by 0.4m, or 15 inches in old money.
Cllr. Saj Hussain proposed that their had been insufficient change from the plan rejected and that the new proposal remained out of character and was an overdevelopment of the area. Saj proposed that the application should be rejected but he was in a minority and got little support from his fellow Councillors.
myKnaphill 
Typical of Woking Planning, and once again, inconsistency of Katie Dunk who has not supported other developments of a similar nature in other parts of the borough for her to now support this Clearly the objections of NINE households surrounding the development count for nothing. Garden grabbing has now been discouraged for several years, but Woking BC allows it to continue even on small plots. This clearly is a prime example of over development in an already relatively densely packed area for housing and time will only prove that the issues around flooding and the highway risks will be borne out. No doubt the owners of 48 Lower Guildford Road are not going to get many Christmas cards from their neighbours this year!
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