Plan to replace Ruckers Lane, Kings Langley, home rejected

Dacorum Borough Council shot down a proposal to knock down a home in Rucklers Lane, Kings Langley, as well as garages and a shed behind it yesterday (July 25) after neighbours objected to the new homes set to replace them.

One two-bedroom house and three three-bedrooms would have been built with the smaller building replacing the existing house and the three-bedrooms set back where the garages are.

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The application acknowledged that “although at a very minor scale”, the scheme would result in harm to the openness of the green belt, but claimed that the merits of the “sensitively designed proposal scheme” outweighed it.

As well as the specifics of the design, the application documents highlighted a need for housing in the area and the plan avoiding the unusually configured site otherwise becoming vacant as reasons for this.

The home seen from the road (Image: Google Street View)

The council ruled that the proposal included land that did not fit the definition of previously developed land, the design was not in keeping with the area, and that it was considered overdevelopment.

The decision notice added that it considered the plan “unacceptable in principle” and said it did not carry out positive engagement with the applicant because “the fundamental objections cannot be overcome through dialogue”.