TWO sets of neighbours living on opposite sides of the same street have both lost planning battles to build new houses in their back gardens.

The homeowners’ properties face each other at the entrance to Antrobus Road in Amesbury.

Mrs Davies at No 3 and Mr and Mrs Maple at No 4 both want to develop their land, but both hit a brick wall, first with Wiltshire Council and then with a planning inspector.

Mrs Davies is no stranger to rejection, having twice been refused planning permission by the council and having lost a previous appeal.

She scaled down her original designs from three to two bedrooms, but it was not enough to convince the council, nor planning inspector Andy Harwood, who rejected the plans on appeal.

He agreed with the council’s decision that the latest design, although smaller, would give the neighbours at No 1 “a sense of being hemmed in .... in very stark contrast to this existing openness.”

It would have an “overbearing, dominating” impact upon their garden, and a “harmful impact” upon their living conditions by blocking their views.

The owner of No 1, Richard Budden, wrote to the council saying the planning bid was “opportunistic, with little or no regard for neighbouring owners” and would block out sunlight in a way that would be “highly detrimental” to his ageing and largely housebound mother.

And Stephen Daniels at No 5 said he thought the new house would be an “eyesore” that would “change the open space forever”.

Meanwhile, across the street at No 4, Mr and Mrs Maple have also lost a battle over their plans to build a “one-and-a-half-storey chalet bungalow” in their garden.

This time, countryside campaigners from the Campaign to Protect Rural England waded in with their objections, and Wiltshire Council planners refused to grant consent.

They were concerned the neighbours at No 2 would be unfairly affected.

The Maples appealed the decision but the same inspector, Mr Harwood, again sided with the council.

He said the bungalow would have a “harmful impact” upon neighbours, blocking their views and enclosing their back garden.