A PLANNING appeal to transform a garage in Trowbridge into a home has been thrown out.

Joke Vis of 65 Holbrook Lane in the town had last year applied to convert the garage at her property into a dwelling separate from the existing single-storey bungalow.

In November 2020 the bid was rejected by Wiltshire Council after its planning officers deemed that Ms Vis’ plans would be too cramped and would result in overdevelopment.

An appeal against the decision was launched by Ms Vis, but the planning inspector sided with Wiltshire Council.

In their decision, planning inspector Alexander O’Doherty concluded that: “The proposal would use the existing access, and the conversion would involve minimal external changes to the garage.

“Nevertheless, the garage is situated very close to its side boundaries and whilst a patio is proposed to be created at the rear, due to the shape of that area it would appear to fit awkwardly within it.”

Mr O’Doherty added that the bid would be an anomaly in the area, and despite Ms Vis pointing to houses on Dursley Road he said that those houses have all “maintained the consistent building line of their respective streets”.

"I also observed the dwellings referred to by the appellant on Bradley Road,” Mr O’Doherty said.

“However, as few details have been provided with respect to what built development might be present around them in their set-back positions, they only provide limited support for the proposal.

“Accordingly, all those examples are not sufficiently persuasive to alter my findings on this main issue.”