77 Bastwick Street

Client: Private
Local Planning Authority: London Borough of Islington Council

An application was submitted adjacent to our clients’ flat at a neighbouring office block for a two storey upwards extension to provide further office space across six floors. The proposal would impact our clients flat and we were asked whether we could submit a representation on their behalf.

On review of the application, we noticed some fundamental flaws in the submitted plans. The application also did not include plans required by the local and national validation requirements, which made it impossible to visualise the true impact of the development. We made these points to the Case Officer who accepted our request and asked the applicant to revise the submission. Once submitted, the consultation period was restarted giving us more time to prepare our representation.

From an initial review of the proposal, it became clear that there would be harmful impacts on our client’s property from sound produced by a lift overrun which would be located right outside of their windows/terrace, and that this was not considered in the submitted Noise Impact Assessment. We reacted by instructing an acoustic consultant to critique the report and discuss the unacceptable impact on our clients.

We then prepared a representation which provided a detailed assessment of the impacts arising from enclosure, overlooking, noise, and loss of outlook, privacy and natural light on the amenities of our clients and occupants of other nearby flats, drawing on the note prepared by the acoustic consultant. This assessment concluded that the adverse impacts would be unacceptable, and we demonstrated that the proposed development would not be policy compliant.

The Council requesting major alterations to the plans in response to our representation. After a lengthy delay, the applicant decided to withdraw the application which may have been as they were unable to demonstrate that the proposal would not have unacceptable impacts on nearby residents.

Squires Planning were successful in convincing the Council that the proposed development was not policy compliant and should not be approved.

The consultant team for this project comprised Squires Planning and Parker Jones Acoustics.