Parking fears ends housing bid

A BID to build affordable housing in a Suffolk village has been snubbed after planners feared there would be too many cars parked on the public roads.

The Flagship Housing Group had produced research to show that, in its opinion, there would be no car parking problem if garages were replaced by houses.

But Suffolk Coastal District Council disagreed with their findings and warned there would be extra vehicles parked on the road and they could cause an obstruction in Melton, near Woodbridge.

The council's development control sub committee refused permission for 16 garages to be knocked down at the rear of St Andrew's Place, Melton, and be replaced by four homes.

The sub committee members said they recognised there was a need for cheaper housing in the village, but the highways authority had asked for permission to be refused.

Flagship Housing said there were 175 car parking spaces for 96 properties - which meant there were 31 extra spaces when compared with the Suffolk Advisory Parking Standards of 1.5 spaces per property.

But its statistics included 81 on-street spaces which the county council's highways authority said could not be taken into account.

The highways authority said: ''Parking on public highway cannot be counted as an existing parking provision for residential dwellings. In addition, in this case St Andrew's Place is of restricted width and of disjointed/piecemeal road layout, and parking problems and subsequent restrictions could not be ruled out at a future date.

''The proposal would cause additional on-street parking which could cause congestion to other road users including emergency vehicles.''

One objector said the loss of parking when the garage block was demolished would have an adverse effect on a resident who had profound autism and suffered from acute anxiety and the phobia of strangers.

His flat's garden would be more exposed and he would lose privacy when the garages, which act as a boundary, were taken down.