Controversial extension to Hucknall dental practice is illegal and must come down

The large extension has been built to the rear of the Family Dental Centre on Portland Road.

The National Planning Inspectorate visited the site last month after the owners appealed against Ashfield District Council’s order to remove the third storey extension last year.

And the inspectorate has now ruled in favour of the council and ordered the dental practice to ‘demolish and remove all parts of the two and three storey extension, remove all resultant debris and materials arising from the land and reinstate the land to its former form and appearance’.

Planning permission was originally granted for a two-storey extension by the council’s planning committee.

The inspectorate said the consent for this application has now expired.

But applicant Maboob Ahmad then submitted new plans to the council for a two and three-storey extension.

However, before permission had been granted, builders began building the new third storey, causing anger to residents on neighbouring Bolsover Street who objected to the project as the third storey overlooked their gardens and took away their privacy.

Ashfield District Council rejected the new application on July 26, 2021 and then issued the enforcement notice for the third storey to be removed on September 17, 2021.

The builders though, continued to work and when the Dispatch contacted him at the time, Mr Ahmad said the council had given him permission to carry on building, something the council strongly denied.

Papers for the decision said that, in their appeal, the appellant said there were ‘several significant public benefits that would be provided by the extension to the dental surgery’.

These included ‘a mentoring programme’ and the ‘increase in capacity that would provide treatment for additional NHS patients, thereby benefiting the continual expanse of the local population, particularly as the dental centre is purportedly the only provider taking on new patients’.

Furthermore, the appellant suggested the increase in capacity would ‘enable the surgery to catch-up following the damaging effects of the Covid-19 pandemic’.

However, the inspectorate also concluded that the design and appearance of the extension’ jarred with the immediate surroundings’ and had a ‘negative effect on the conservation area’.

Addressing the issue of privacy for residents of Bolsover Terrace, the inspectorate said: “The large roof terrace allows for uninterrupted views into rear gardens and rear windows of the terraced properties and the building immediately to the west of the appeal building.

"Although the appellant says that the roof terrace is not for use by the dental staff and that the door from the staff room allows for maintenance access only, its use as a recreational area has been noted by nearby residents in their appeal submissions.

"Use of the roof terrace has the potential to result in a substantial loss of privacy to nearby residents and users of the nearby buildings.”

The appellant also raised the point of planning permission being granted in 2016 for a nursing home in another part of town that was three storeys high in places.

But the inspectorate said all applications and appeals had to be judged on their own merits.”

Coun Jim Blagden (Ash Ind), who represents the Hucknall Central ward where the dental practice is located, said: “The Planning Inspectorate’s decision on this appeal demonstrates the importance of following advice provided by the planning officers of the council.

"The applicant was repeatedly advised to stop working and if they carried on they were doing so at their own risk.

"They were advised that their development would have a significant impact on residents and the conservation area and that they should build no further than the permission they had already obtained.

“The council recognises the need for improved dental care facilities and had approved a previous scheme having assessed all the relevant planning considerations.

"The council is still happy to work with the practice to develop a new scheme that is appropriate in the residential setting and the conservation area providing new chairs for dentists.

"However, in the meantime, the council will be working to secure the demolition of the unauthorised extension within the time period specified.

"Failure to do so has the potential for further action.”

The Dispatch has contacted the dental practice for comment.