PLANS to demolish 22 ‘substandard’ garages off Egmont Road, Poole to make way for a three-storey building with nine single-bed flats has led to an objection.

An immediate neighbour says the new homes will directly overlook her garden and home and will affect wildlife in the area with the removal of some trees. Other concerns raised include potential parking problems.

The objector says that after attending a consultation meeting in the Turlin Moor Youth Club there has been no feedback from BCP Council and residents were not notified the planning application had been submitted.

The council’s highway team has raised no objection to the proposal saying that the ten parking spaces being offered, together with ten cycle spaces, exceeds the council’s standards.

A report by a highway officer says that only a few of the garages are used for parking: “As such there is unlikely to be a significant displacement, and the parking survey has shown that capacity does exist on surrounding streets. Whilst this is not ideal, it is likely that many already park on the street rather than use the garages, as they are substandard, remote and lack passive surveillance. I would therefore no object to the loss of garaging in this case.”

The new homes are being proposed for the Poole Housing Partnership on the site of 22 garages to the rear of 190-196 Egmont Road.

Eighteen are let to residents, four are not leased and one is let to a person in London.

A planning application to BCP Council says that only three of the garages are currently being used to park a car and that the site is surrounded by flats and terraced houses with the main Waterloo-Weymouth rail line to the south just 10m away.

Documents with the application claim that by using thicker glass in the ‘affordable’ homes and with a larger air gap between panes, noise levels within the proposed flats should be acceptable.

Planning agents argue that the site would be better used for housing, than garages: “Presently the site offers little to the local area, indeed the existing back of development garage block could be viewed as a potential source of antisocial behaviour and neglect, although at present it is well maintained,” said a statement submitted with the planning papers.