A Redbridge resident’s extension to his Ilford home has been approved by councillors after several objections.
Muhammad Khan’s proposals to add another bedroom to his Sunnymede Drive property, increasing it from a two-bed to a three-bed, received pushback from seven locals. He also applied to install roof lights to the front and rear.
It would increase the occupancy from eight people to ten but would still fall within the minimum space requirements, Redbridge Council said.
Applications are normally handled by the council’s planning department, but this was referred to the planning committee – made up of nine elected councillors – by councillors Martin Sachs and Mark Santos due to the volume of objections.
An agent for Khan said it would help meet Redbridge’s housing needs, but locals said the extensions appeared overbearing and could lead to overcrowding, which would worsen noise in the street.
In their formal objections, they raised concerns about parking, which is “already difficult,” and said it would not be in-keeping with the area as “no other house has that many occupants and especially not that many individual adults”.
Cllr Santos also spoke against the application on behalf of residents, describing it as a “clear overdevelopment of the site” that “intensifies the use of a building well beyond what its size, layout and original design could reasonably support”.
Khan’s agent argued it was a “policy-compliant, modest, well-designed extension that provides a much-needed family home, causes no harm to the neighbours, improves internal living standards, and makes effective use of an existing residential plot”.
He added that concerns about noise were not grounds for planning refusal.
Councillor Gurdial Bhamra said he could “understand [the objectors’] feelings” but Redbridge was “short of houses”. He agreed the design was modest.
After a four-minute debate, the committee voted overall to approve the extension. Councillor Pushpita Gupta voted against the motion, while Councillor Nav Johal abstained. Neither specified why.
The council’s planning department had recommended the scheme for approval ahead of the meeting.
