Rooftop Extension for Nine Dwellings Amended — Coastal Landscape Character and Overdevelopment, Lancing, West Sussex

The Application

The application proposed a part 1-storey, part 2-storey rooftop extension to The Haven, Brighton Road, Lancing, West Sussex, to create nine residential units with associated works. The site is situated along Brighton Road on the Lancing seafront — a coastal setting with particular landscape sensitivity — in an area characterised by a visually cohesive, low-profile mix of residential properties and apartment buildings, predominantly two to four storeys, with a predominantly white modernist aesthetic that emphasised horizontal lines and maintained the open character of the seafront setting.

The Client's Concern

The client contacted Planning Voice after learning of proposals to add a rooftop extension to a neighbouring building on the Lancing seafront. They were particularly concerned that the application should be considered alongside a recently approved scheme for seven three-bedroom flats just metres away, which had already increased the density of development in the immediate area. The client was aware that a similar rooftop application had previously been submitted for the same building, and they felt that the cumulative effect of both approved and proposed developments would fundamentally alter the character of the seafront setting. They sought professional assistance to ensure that these concerns were properly articulated in planning policy terms and given due weight in the council's assessment of the application.

Our Objection

Our objection focused on two principal grounds: landscape character and the overdevelopment impact of the rooftop extension.

1. Coastal Landscape Character

The West Sussex Landscape Character Assessment classifies the site as falling within the SC1 South Coast Shoreline Character Area — a distinctive low, open and exposed landscape with an overriding visual and physical association with the sea. The document identifies key sensitivities including the visual disruption caused by upward development and the importance of maintaining an open coastal skyline.

Policy 15 of the Adur Local Plan 2017 requires development to respect and enhance the character of the site and the prevailing character of the area in terms of proportion, form, massing, siting, height, scale, and materials. The proposed rooftop addition — introducing a two-storey element above an existing building — would breach the horizontal, low-profile character of the seafront setting and introduce a vertical element inconsistent with the prevailing scale of development in this part of Lancing.

Policy 13 of the Adur Local Plan specifically protects the landscape character of Adur and its coast outside the built-up area boundary, requiring development to respect and reinforce the setting, distinctiveness, and sense of place of the coastal landscape. The West Sussex Landscape Character Assessment was clear that development disrupting visual unity and fragmenting the open coastal skyline was among the key threats to this landscape's integrity.

2. Overdevelopment and Daylight Impact

The rooftop extension proposed to add two storeys of new residential accommodation above an existing building in a context where the surrounding properties were predominantly two to four storeys. The cumulative massing of the extended building — now materially taller than its neighbours — would be an incongruous and dominant presence on the Lancing seafront, contrary to the uniformity of scale that was a defining characteristic of this part of the coast.

The introduction of nine new residential units in a rooftop position also raised concerns about daylight and sunlight to the existing and proposed dwellings within the building, as well as the impact of the extended roofline on the outlook and light available to adjacent residential properties. The application had not provided an adequate daylight and sunlight assessment to demonstrate that the proposals met the BRE guidance thresholds.

← Back to all case studies