A bid for three “unrelentingly modern” houses on the edge of ancient woodland has been given the green light, despite locals’ traffic fears.

The plot on the Ridgewaye, Southborough, currently hosts a large bungalow, with a 60 metre path leading to it, on the edge of Brokes Wood ⁠— a protected area of ancient woodland.

The owners had previously applied to turn the site into four houses, but the plans were rejected by the local authority, who said the plot would be “cramped and overdeveloped”.

Thirty-five letters of objection were sent to Tunbridge Wells Borough Council’s (TWBC) planning department urging them to reject the scheme, but officers recommended it for approval.

The plans for three four-storey homes, with basement levels built into the slope of a hill, were treated more favourably by the local authority as it doesn’t have a five-year supply of housing.

Prior to the decision, Alister Clarke, who lives on nearby Brian Crescent, wrote in to the planning committee to object to the bid.

He expressed his fears of “increased hazards on the highway and danger to current local residents and dog walkers”, owing to issues of viability on the junction between the Ridgewaye and Hillcrest.

“The area has already been developed to capacity with the development of the flats overlooking the Ridgeway playing fields meaning congestion at the junction of Ridgeway and Yew Tree Road is horrific at peak times,” Mr Clarke added.

“The proposed three houses are also huge at four storeys high and five beds in the main house.

“The construction process, should it go ahead, will be highly disruptive as there is no safe access to the site and not enough parking currently on Ridgeway and Hillcrest due to narrow roads and the number of dropped curbs.”

At the meeting of TWBC’s planning committee on March 22, Sam Bowman, managing director of Beau Architecture – which designed the new houses – spoke in support of the scheme.

He reassured members that road safety had been dealt with in their plans, saying: “We recognise the importance of providing a safe site access and so we employed a transport consultant to come up with a proposal.

“A transport survey was carried out, the data was collected and a design in response to that data was provided, to the satisfaction of KCC highways.”

“Also, a road safety audit was carried out by an independent consultant who confirmed that there was no issues with this proposal and considered that the access was acceptable.”

Defending the modern architecture of the plans, Mr Bowman added: “The scheme, we think, is a well-designed and thoughtful, respectful scheme. The intention was never to replicate the housing around, because it’s a mix and match, but we’ve drawn on the key architectural elements and used that in the design.

“It is adjacent to Brokes Wood but that doesn’t stop contemporary design.”

Echoing concerns raised by the Woodland Trust prior to the meeting, Cllr Raymond Moon (Lab) raised fears about the proximity of the gardens to Brokes Wood.

He said: “The problem is people introduce non-native species to their garden which then migrate into the woodland and destroy that habitat.”

However, Cllr Nicholas Pope (TWA) disagreed, pointing out that “The three gardens that have been mentioned are where one garden currently is.

“So that buffer zone to some extent has already been a domestic garden and it’s just being broken into three, so I don’t see a major issue with that.”

Several councillors expressed their views on the architecture, with Cllr Brendan Le Page (Lib Dem) saying: “It's unrelentingly modern but it does nod to the buildings that are there.”

Cllr Pope described it as “modern and relatively attractive.”

Cllr Christian Atwood (Cons), said: “The architecture is modern, not to my liking I have to admit but then again I can’t afford to live there.”

The development was backed overwhelmingly by the committee, with nine votes in favour, one against, and no abstentions.