A PLANNING battle has broken out over a bid to build extensions at a 19th century Winchester home.

The proposal, for 10 Compton Road, in the city centre, would see a two-storey front extension and single-story built, and is also seeking retrospective planning permission for a boundary wall.

The scheme has already received a combined total of 120 objections to both the original and recently amended designs, with a number of prominent Wintonians putting their names against it.

William Carver, of neighbouring Christchurch Road and trustee of the Licoricia of Winchester Statue Appeal, wrote to planners: "I believe that this application is out of keeping with the Conservation Area and that it would be a visible affront to it.

"The plot has been subdivided without permission contrary to local plan policy and overdeveloped; the design takes no account of the privacy of neighbours or the nature of its location; the appeal to historical precedent is flimsy in the extreme.

"There is no point in having Conservation or local plans if they are ignored, and to allow this application would be a dreadful precedent which I personally have not elected the council to create."

Meanwhile, Lady Angela Stansfield Smith, widow of award-winning former chief Hampshire County Council architect Sir Colin Stansfield Smith, said: "As the widow of the last Hampshire county architect, I have had a considerable interest in the planning of Winchester and have been an active member of the [City of] Winchester Trust for many years.

"The proposed new plan is totally unacceptable; the design is obtrusive to all, out of scale with the surrounding properties, and filling the whole site right up to the boundary of no. 12 (increasing the building's footprint fourfold)."

Her son Oliver added: "The new scheme is once again an egregious overdevelopment of the site, and the architectural language is still depressingly coarse and insensitive.

"Compton Road remains, for the most part, a fine exemplar of late Victorian and Edwardian development, and the developer and architect need to show a little more humility and sympathy to the neighbouring properties.

"The dumbed down, ersatz 1930s business park aesthetic is inoffensive when taken out of context; but in the specific location of Compton Road, it appears impolite and injudicious."

Vice chairman of the City of Winchester Trust Iain Patton said: "Whatever small, cosmetic changes have been made to this proposed building, it remains a jarring intrusion in one of the most distinguished areas of Winchester and harmful to its neighbours.

"Although I now live in Canon Street, having moved two months ago, I feel able to object to this application because I lived in Christchurch Road for 48 years, very close to the site of this application and gained a special empathy for that area."

However, the scheme did receive more than a dozen letters of support too.

Tom Romita, general manager of Tom's Deli, in St George's Street, wrote: "I fully support the proposals which are very well thought out and will add positively to the area. The applicants have demonstrated their interest and care for the area by what they have achieved in improving the main dwelling and the Coach House.

"This is an excellent scheme which I trust will be approved."

Twyford residents Nicola and Simon Peck added: "As developers who frequently face this sort of objection by neighbours who rightfully might be frightened of change and have therefore rallied support (as is their right), one can't deny the facts, regardless of how emotional one might feel about the plans – this is a beautifully located brown site, with a modest building being repurposed as a 21st century home.

"(Applicants) the Jowitts have clearly accepted that the first scheme was too radical for the neighbourhood and have radically reduced it to respect their neighbour's opinions."

A decision of the application is due to be made at a Winchester City Council planning committee on Thursday, January 10.