Dozens object to plans for ‘modern’ house in North Berwick garden

The owners of one of four flats in a former Victorian house on West Bay Road in North Berwick applied for planning permission to build the new contemporary home in its garden.

But East Lothian Council planners recommended that councillors reject the plans after 26 objections were lodged, claiming it would be out of place in the seaside town’s conservation area.

The application will now be heard by the council’s planning committee after ward councillor Carol McFarlane called it in, saying she believed that a site visit should be carried out because of the mix of ‘infill’ housing already in the street.

Applicants Gary Henderson and Linda Stone had already been granted permission to extend their property with a balcony but said that they had decided it would be more beneficial to build a new "more energy-efficient" home in the garden rather than stay in the flat itself.

The new home proposed for West Bay Road would be modern and more energy efficient. Image: East Lothian Council planning portal

Objectors said that the new house would be an overdevelopment of the site and bore "no relationship" to other houses on the street.

In a report to be considered by the planning committee, officers said of the house: “It would in terms of its design and external finishes be of a contemporary form and finish that would be very different in character and appearance to the form and appearance of the other houses and buildings of West Bay Road.

“Its flat-roofed boxed form and appearance and its use of modern non-traditional materials would be at odds with the built form of this part of West Bay Road.

“Consequently, the proposed house would not be of a design or appearance that would be sympathetic to its setting or well-integrated into its surroundings. Instead it would be of a form and character inappropriate for this part of the North Berwick Conservation Area.”

The committee will consider the application next week.