Refusal of poor quality design

The council will refuse schemes where design is considered to be poor. Examples of poor quality design may include design solutions that are inappropriate to their context, layouts which are not legible and fail to respond to local patterns of development and schemes which fail to take positive opportunities to improve the appearance of an area or the way it functions. The council's policies and guidance are not to be utilised as a template for minimum standards, but are to encourage innovation in the design and layout of buildings and their immediate and wider environment. They are applicable to all new development including alterations and extensions to existing buildings.