A COLDEN Common resident has been told he cannot develop land next to his house – despite being the legal owner.

Darren Holyoake had been seeking Winchester City Council's permission to erect a detached timber building to use as a workshop and garden room.

This would have been on the greenspace between his property, 13 Hack Drive, and his neighbour's at number 15.

At a committee his plans, which received 24 public objections, were refused as they breached the parish council's village design statement.

"These houses were built in the 1970s to have an open plan appearance," said parish council representative Debbie Harding

"Building this structure on the grass walkway is unacceptable. Residents would lose too much of their greenspace."

City councillor Sue Cook added: "This building would be rather overbearing. It certainly does not comply to the local plan.

"The dimensions would dramatically impact the amount of sunlight that house number 15 would get through the windows, and walkers may be under the impression that the space is no longer a walkway."

But Kim Blunt, who represented Mr Holyoake at the meeting, did not see anything wrong with the plans.

She said: "There would still be plenty of greenspace either side of the building. The design is sub-serving to most of the buildings in Hack Drive.

"These plans would allow the applicant to better use the side garden as well as tidy up some dead space."

Chairman of the committee, Cllr Therese Evans, agreed with Ms Blunt.

"I believe that you should be allowed to do what you want with your land, as long as you follow the correct procedures in terms of planning," she said.

"Those who wish to turn it down, I can't quite see what the planning reason would be."

Six out of eight members voted to refuse the application.

Mr Holyoake had also applied to convert the integral garage in to an annexe, which the committee had no problem with.

However, splitting an application is not allowed, so all proposals have been refused.