When is an office not an office, but a bedroom?

AS seems to have become a regular occurrence lately, Thame Town Council has once again been defending the town’s Neighbour Plan from rapacious developers, with one councillor accusing a developer of attempting to ‘drive a train’ through Thame’s Neighbour Plan policies and of ‘a blatant attempt at intensification’.

Thame Town Councillor, Mike Dyer

Cllr Mike Dyer’s comments came after a representative for Persimmon Homes spoke before the full council last Tuesday, July 31, in defense of a planning application for 25 new homes, including eight ‘affordable’ homes, on land off Thame Park Road, Thame, to replace an existing permission for eight, 4-bedroom, two-storey properties with studies, on the same 0.5 hectare area of land.

Caroline Owen, for Persimmon Homes, sought to explain some confusion as to which houses were two-bedroomed and which were three-bedroomed, as some of those described as two bedrooms, had an extra room upstairs described as a study. She said that the plan had been amended because of an apparent greater demand for smaller two and three bed dwellings and less demand for larger detached houses. Ms Owen said that the proposal represented the way Persimmon market their homes. There are a number of rooms, within the houses that have studies, and whether these are counted as bedrooms depends on the size of the dwelling, she explained.

(In the plans some rooms shown as double-bedrooms have smaller areas than rooms of 9.3 sq. metres, described as offices.)

Sleight of hand?

But, speaking after Ms Owen’s presentation, Cllr Dyer would have none of it and told councillors: “This is sleight of hand pure and simple. We know that those offices upstairs (Ed. designated as ‘studies’ in the plans) will be used as bedrooms.”

During her presentation, Ms Owen said that TTC did not have a specific policy for housing mix and therefore Persimmon Homes had taken input from a range of documents; the District 2008 Housing Needs Assessment, the Oxfordshire Strategic Housing Market Assessment, the 2011 census and informal advice from the District’s Housing Team.

Cllr Dyer took Ms Owen to task over her description of Policies in the TNP, as ‘recommendations’. “Any change of housing policy, including specific numbers of houses, would be up to us to address in the Neighbourhood Plan, not for anyone else to drive a train through Neighbourhood polices. The Local Plan has not yet gone to examination nor determined,” he added.

Why does all this matter?

This ‘confusion’ over room designations matters because the developer is claiming the scheme will provide:
 16 x 2 bedroom houses, 64% of the proposed scheme
 8 x 3 bedroom houses, 32% of the proposed scheme
 1 x 4 bedroom house, 4% of the proposed scheme

Whereas, Thame Town Council’s method of calculation, assuming the ‘offices’ may be used as bedrooms, means the scheme will yield:

 22 x 3-bedroom properties
 3 x 4-bedroom properties
 Zero x 2-bedroom properties

Councillors voted to recommend refusal of the application.

To read the full background to this application, click on the Report link at Agenda item 6, Land off Thame Park Road Thame P18S2069FUL HERE