Plans for a new home for the newly elected Lib Dem MP in Chelmsford have been approved by the city council’s planning committee.
Marie Goldman, MP for Chelmsford, and her husband Simon Goldman have received approval to knock down their existing home in Essex and self-build a new house.
However, the plans have sparked a debate, with some arguing that the home should be renovated instead, as demolition and rebuilding would produce more pollution.
What are the plans?
The new house proposal is a two-storey, four-bedroom house to replace the existing property.
The new property is 1.5 metres narrower to allow more distance from neighbouring properties but is deeper than the existing house.
The new home has brick, zinc and cladding and was altered from a previous design with light grey brickwork to be more in keeping with the surrounding areas.
Row over refurbishing home versus rebuilding
The plans for the new house have drawn criticism with one neighbour, Mr Roy Clover, writing to the council to say he was "disappointed to see that several of our comments/concerns previously raised do not appear to have been addressed".
He argues tearing down the house rather than renovating is wrong as he claims: "As widely reported Experts (including the Royal Institute of British Architects and the government's advisory climate change committee) say it's not acceptable to pull buildings down, we should refurbish old buildings rather than scrap them because of the pollution that would be involved in constructing a replacement building, known as embodied Carbon."
He says as the house is "not falling down" it "could be refurbished to an environmentally friendly" eco house, which "would minimise the overall C02 impact".
He also says "Refurbishment would lessen the impact of noise, pollution, and disturbance/disruption to the neighbourhood".
Why was planning permission granted?
Despite the objections, planning permission was granted for the knocking down the house and replacing it with the self-build.
At the planning meeting for the new house, Graham Pooley, the Lib Dem Councillor for Moulsham and Central, said he he had worked closely with the Goldman family and he claimed the application "is exceptional in many respects”.
Jacob Armstrong, the Conservative Councillor for Little Baddow added: “Just to put a more forward opinion on it I think it’s generally a really nice scheme and I agree with the officers on this one that they have assessed it reasonably and fairly."
The committee unanimously approved the proposals with no objections being raised regarding the potential additional pollution that could occur from rebuilding the house.
