THE owners of a large house in the middle of Bothenhampton have won an appeal over Dorset Council’s refusal of planning permission.

It will mean the property can stay as it is and is no longer at risk of enforcement action.

Council officers stepped in after residents took on their own experts to contest changes from the original design at Homestead Farm in Main Street.

It was claimed the difference in roof lines had made the four-bed home ‘overbearing’, affecting views of the Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and within the village Conservation Area.

But a planning inspector has now decided that while there is some effect it is not enough for the consent to be refused – over-ruling a planning committee refusal in August 2020.

The arguments over the differences led to building work coming to a halt on the site before the project was finished with work stopping last autumn once the building was watertight.

At one stage councillors were told they might have to consider ordering the demolition of the building or forcing changes to be made so that the structure complied with the original planning consent.

Arguments centred around a slight skew to one section of the building and roof lines which, in places, were up to 0.8metre taller than the original consent, although in some areas were lower.

Some changes to the original consent were approved as the building work progressed with planning officers saying that for a project of its size and complexity some variance between original plans and the finished home was to be expected. They had recommended approving the changes to the ‘Y’-shaped building, said to have cost around £4m, but were over-ruled by councillors in a unanimous vote.

Agent for the developer Andy Partridge told the planning committee at the time that the changes should be considered in context for a substantial, complex house, on a large plot.

He said the changes to the angle of the south west wing was slight as were the differences in roof lines, none of them making any appreciable difference to the overall appearance.

Dorset councillors were told this week that the planning inspector, after hearing evidence online, visited the site and concluded that the council’s officers were correct in their view that the changes were not substantial enough to warrant a refused. She granted the property full planning consent as it stands.

In her report she says: ““the increased height of the building removes marginally more of the view across the appeal site than the original consent but that fact, in itself, does not mean that the structures are “overbearing” to adjacent properties. Whilst residents of the existing properties have inevitably experienced a change in their outlook and now see a larger structure this does not inherently cause harm to amenity.”

An application for costs against the council was refused.

Bridport Cllr David Bolwell said it had taken residents a long time and a lot of money to persuade Dorset Council that the building was not as planned and said that lessons ought to be learned from the inspector’s decision.