A PLANNED retail and residential development on Lumb Lane has been thrown out by planners for a variety of reasons.

Planning officers gave nine separate reasons for refusing a three-storey building on a vacant plot of land next to 268 Lumb Lane.

The plans, submitted by Mr Master of Master Developments, were for four ground floor shops with eight one bed flats above. They said the site was currently overgrown and used by fly-tippers.

The site lies within the Apsley Crescent Conservation Area, and one reason for the plans being refused was that the building would be “dominant and incongruous” in this protected area.

Another reason for refusal includes a lack of parking for cars and bicycles, which highways officers would “result in greater on-street car parking to the detriment of the safe and free flow of traffic on the highway.”

Living areas in some flats would have no access to natural light, and the plans contained no information about how the development would provide the necessary boost to local biodiversity required by all new developments.

Planners also claimed the building would “create a strident feature in the street scene to the detriment of the character and appearance of the locality.”