Rod Holliman, a resident of a ground-floor apartment in Almeda House on Sydney Street, Chelsea, has expressed fears that a nearby development will plunge his home into “near total permanent darkness.” The development, located on the site of a former post office in Chelsea Manor Street, had already secured approval for a five-storey building, but the applicant, Huite Capital Limited, was granted permission to increase the height further at a Kensington and Chelsea Planning Sub-Committee meeting on Wednesday.
Resident's Concerns Over Daylight Reduction
Mr Holliman told the sub-committee that the two-metre increase would “severely diminish” his living conditions. “My home would be plunged into near total permanent darkness forcing me to rely on artificial light even at midday,” he said. “This is not a minor technical brief, it is a catastrophic notable cost that would cut my current daylight in more than half.” He accused the applicant of “maximising their profit at the cost of [his] total darkness.”
The sub-committee heard that Mr Holliman’s window is already “deeply recessed” because it sits under an architectural overhang. This means that vertical sun component levels (VSC), which are used to assess how much daylight a property gets, are already very low. The room which would be affected has a VSC of 5.5 percent, while the Building Research Establishment says developments should aim for an ideal level of 27 percent. Once the development is completed, these VSC levels will decrease by 2.9 percent – a total reduction of 52 percent. Mr Holiman told the committee that it was “purely the 2.1 meter increase which has achieved this.” He added: “The only window that attracts daylight is the window being affected. We will not get any meaningful daylight at all.”
Applicant's Response and Council Decision
Drew Steadman, a daylight and sunlight specialist advising the applicant, told the sub-committee that the change in VSC levels for the affected window was “very small” and that the majority of the room would still get direct sunlight. He said that the proportional reduction in sunlight seems higher because the VSC levels for the window are already so low. He added that the scheme “performs well overall in its context in our view.”
Council officers recommended the scheme for approval as they felt that the scheme’s harms were outweighed by its benefits. Councillor Anne Cyron, Vice-Chair of the Planning Applications Sub-Committee, said: “It’s very concerning to hear Mr Holiman’s concerns and it is concerning when people develop near your home, particularly when they change the height and the height seems really tall. I’ve listened really carefully to all of these arguments and my feeling is that the officers have assessed this correctly – that the reduction in light is reasonable given the context and the setup of the flat.”
