‘How is this allowed?’ Upper Clapton residents upset by plan to build a house in conservation area

Neighbour Sam Boden is hoping to save a sycamore tree in his garden. Photograph: Julia Gregory

Residents is Upper Clapton have voiced concerns about plans to build a house on a vacant plot in a conservation area – fearing it will lead to a loss of privacy and light.

Developers hope to build a one-bedroom home with a basement on a bramble-covered site off Filey Avenue.

The plot sits inside the Northwold and Cazenove conservation area – a status designed to protect the many late 19th-century Victorian homes built there.

Hackney’s planning committee is set to discuss the plan today because there are 14 objections.

A Town Hall report recommends giving the proposal the green light.

It states that it is “an appropriate land use” and that the proposed new house is “of a bulk, scale and massing which would respect the character and appearance of the site” and the conservation area.

It goes to say that the development would not have a detrimental impact on Oldhill Street, where there is a “mismatch” of buildings of varying heights, or on “the amenity of adjoining occupiers”.

The Clapton Conservation Area advisory committee said it fears the “substantial loss of over 50 per cent of the garden/amenity” of an adjacent home and said there is “limited amenity space for the new dwelling”.

Nearby resident Sam Boden said he is worried that “it’s going to take away our privacy”. He is also concerned about his family’s enjoyment of the garden and the shade provided by a sycamore tree which he fears could be at risk.

The council’s planning department said the tree is on the border of properties. Boden said the tree is in his family garden.

The Town Hall report said a survey of the tree found it was “unsuitable for retention due to its condition, which has extensive cavity and has been pruned unsympathetically”.

It said there was no objection to its removal as it has decay and no protective measures are needed during building work.

Cllr Simche Steinberger (Conservative, Springfield) said he is concerned about the loss of the mature tree at a time when the council is spending money planting street trees.

“How is it that they are allowing such a thing?” he asked.

He added he was “shocked that such an application is recommended for approval” in a conservation area.

One of the applicants, Levent Mustafa, said the tree does not need to come down and it is not in the plot outlined by the application, but he was asked to provide a tree report.