A housing developer that was given permission to build six new flats in a residential street has been told it can extend the scheme.

Harrow Council’s planning committee agreed to grant permission for a development consisting of seven flats in a two-storey building in Elms Road, Harrow Weald.

But, in March, it decided that a six-flat complex would be appropriate at the site.

Opposition councillors took issue with the proposals, with Cllr Norman Stevenson questioning whether this will be the end of the applications there.

“Will the developer come back and ask for eight flats next time? If we said six was enough, why are we allowing seven?” he said.

“Of course, new homes are a good thing, but this is a major overdevelopment and is trying to squeeze in as much as possible.”

Cllr Stephen Greek said there would be issues with parking, since the scheme proposes six parking spaces for seven homes.

He also said it was “fundamentally dishonest” of the developers to come back with a second, larger scheme.

“I thought it was too much in the first place and there wasn’t enough parking. What we’ve got here makes both of these problems worse,” he said.

Planning officers explained that the parking situation is in keeping with the London Plan and the council always wants to promote “more sustainable” travel.

And planning committee chairman Cllr Keith Ferry joked that multiple applications are a good thing since they bring in extra application fees for the department.

Conservative councillors opposed the scheme, but they were outvoted by their Labour counterparts four to three.