AN ANDOVER car sales owner has been denied planning permission which could one day have led to a small housing development being built on its site.

Kevan Dean, of D&D Motors, says the company is going nowhere but had lodged the applications as part of its “long-term planning”.

He had appealed the case to the Planning Inspectorate after Test Valley Borough Council failed to issue a decision. The authority then went on to refuse the bid to build between four and six houses or flats on the New Street base in February, citing the size of the site and what was proposed as reasons for refusal.

However, a government inspector has now dismissed the case due to concerns over the scale of the development.

Inspector Janet Wilson said that she had concerns over the trees bordering the site “which make an important contribution to the streetscape” and the development’s proximity to neighbouring buildings.

Her report read: “Taken together the above factors lead me to hold sufficient concerns as to the amount of development proposed whilst still being able to safeguard the trees, and provide acceptable separation distances between and around buildings on, and adjacent to, the appeal site.”

Mr Dean and his agent sought the build as part of its future planning, and stated that TVBC “misinterpreted” guidance rather than determining whether the home would be “acceptable in principle”.

But Ms Wilson said she considered the context of it the site and its constraints and concluded: “To this end, whilst the location and land use of the site are appropriate for residential use; the site would not, in my view, be capable of accommodating even four dwellings.”

The inspector also considered Mr Dean and his agent’s argument that an alternative proposal in New Street had been granted consent for in principle by the council, and while Ms Wilson did not have the details of this application, she said: “I have made my decision based on the evidence before me within the parameters applicable to the consideration of applications for permission in principle.”

An initial design was refused by TVBC in December 2018.

The business has confirmed that despite the application, it has no plans to close.

Owner Kevan said: “We are not moving from the premises. We’re not shutting the doors and we’re still running.

“We’re here, we’re open, and our opening hours are as normal. If we were moving, we would let our customers know.

“We have got a lot of loyal customers that have been coming here year after year. We always have time for our customers.”