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Pub extension ‘a disaster’
A HAMPSTEAD pub has won its battle to build a two-storey extension which neighbours fear will bring parking chaos.
Managers at the Freemasons Arms in Downshire Hill appealed against a Town Hall decision in August last year to reject plans for the extension seating 56 diners. The application brought nearly 100 complaints from neighbours concerned about increased traffic congestion and litter.
But on Thursday, government planning inspector Roger Brown overturned the council’s decision. Mr Brown said that, contrary to neighbours’ fears, the proposed extension would cut potential noise because it would mean more people dining inside the building, rather than in the garden.
He added that additional traffic would be “minimal”. But he laid down strict noise restrictions during building work and demanded protection for trees on the site.
Mr Brown’s decision was called a “disaster” by Heath and Hampstead Society chairman Tony Hillier, who lives in Downshire Hill. He said: “We submitted our evidence and we were ignored. There is considerable parking stress in the area already and it is going to get worse.”
A spokeswoman for pub bosses Mitchells and Butlers said: “We are considering starting work some time next year.”
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