Plans for a new five-storey block of flats near Watford tube station have been withdrawn.

The controversial proposal – to build 19 flats and an additional three mews houses in Whippendell Road, Watford – was due to be debated at a meeting on Tuesday, January 10.

Watford Borough Council’s planning committee heard that the developers had decided not to go ahead with the scheme.

If approved, the developer – Gosway Properties – would have been able to demolish the houses 495-499 Whippendell Road and replace them with the five-story block.

Watford Observer: An artist’s impression of now-scrapped proposals for a block of flats in Whippendell Road (centre of image). An artist’s impression of now-scrapped proposals for a block of flats in Whippendell Road (centre of image). (Image: Benchmark Architects/Watford Brough Council.)

Members of the public had branded the scheme a “poor effort from the developer”.

In a comment which appeared on the council’s website, an objection read: “By building up to almost the perimeter [of the site] it is casting the existing houses into permanent shade.

“This particular area, Sydney and Whippendell roads, are already seeing a massive amount of development.”

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Another read: “We cannot see any evidence of detailed reports showing how this additional development – along with all the other recent development – can sustain and provide for extra public services, thus causing further reduction in our quality and ability to access these services.”

Watford Borough Council’s planning staff had recommended that councillors refuse the application on six grounds, among them that the building would have resulted in a loss of approximately 80 per cent of the landscaping on the site.

“The proposed development fails to achieve outstanding design quality in terms of its height, massing, detailing, layout, siting and relationship to the surrounding context,” the council’s report notes.

The developer’s application sets out that the site would have featured “small pockets of landscaping”.

A statement to support the proposals read: “Overall, the ecology of the site will be improved from the enhanced planting/biodiversity which will be incorporated through the introduction of new landscaping areas.”

It adds the site would have included nine car parking spaces and 24 cycle spaces, with inclusive access.

“The development will ensure the delivery of high-quality new homes with good internal space standards and meeting private amenity space requirements – including close to 20 per cent of family-sized three-bedroom homes – which would contribute significantly to the council’s housing targets,” a statement read.