COUNCILLORS fought to prevent the demolition of a 90-year-old house in Bushey.

Members of the Bushey and Aldenham planning sub-committee turned down an outline application by Banner Homes to build 18 flats at the site in Bushey Grove Road.

Officers had recommended refusal for five reasons: the over dominance of the development in relation to the street scene, loss of privacy to the surrounding buildings, the inadequate number of car parking spaces, access to the site and the proposed siting of the rubbish bin area.

However, despite their recommendation, residents still feared for the survival of the 1912 arts and crafts house and asked for an article four to be imposed, which would bring the demolition of the house under the authority of Hertsmere Borough Council.

An appeal has already been submitted by the developers and councillors were impatient to impose the article four before the Banner Homes could clear the site - an action that currently requires no planning permission.

At the meeting on Thursday, February 7, Councillor Seamus Quilty proposed that an article four be placed on the property.

Councillor Miki Colne said: "I'm very pleased that we appear to be in agreement. If an article four were to be placed on this property then this application would fail. If the house remains, these blocks are not going to be able to fit on this site."

Councillor Colne asked how long the procedure would take and urged that the issue be dealt with as a matter of extreme urgency.

She said: "I think it extremely sad that if this application was to proceed it would change the whole character of that area of Bushey. We are all aware of the scale of the volume of traffic that goes into Aldenham Road. The proximity of the proposal to the existing properties is also unacceptable."

However, Councillor Frank Ward, while supporting the planning officers' recommendation to refuse planning permission, asked for clarification of the powers of an article four.

He said: "I believe that article four could apply to any future application but I don't believe that an application going through a legitimate democratic process can have an article four slapped on it. I don't believe it applies to this application. I think we are drifting into ultra vires."

He added: "I would like this clarified before officers make any public recommendation. I don't want to find that what we are discussing this evening ends in disrepute."

Head of planning, transport and building control at Hertsmere Borough Council Richard Grove explained that an article four would not prevent demolition of the building.

The authority had approached the department of culture, media and sport about the possibility of listing the building to prevent its demolition but its application had been declined.

Mr Grove said: "What an article four would do is bring demolition under planning control. As it stands at the moment, the demolition of that building does not require planning consent.

"There's compensation for article four. I'm not saying there isn't a degree of risk if an article four is imposed."

Councillor Martin Saunders raised the possibility of the local listing of buildings.

He said: "It would be a good idea to have something like that as soon as possible."

February 14, 2002 13:41