PLANS to build a ‘garden room’ in the grounds of a house in Wemyss Bay should be refused, council planners have said.

The application, for a property in Castle Wemyss Road, will go before Inverclyde Council’s local review body (LRB) for a decision next week.

The authority’s planning department says the proposed building would “have a negative impact on the amenity and character of the immediate area”.

A report by a planning officer dealing with the case says that the height, size and elevated position of the proposed building “results in an overbearing and visually dominant development at this location that has: an adverse visual impact on the site and immediate surrounding area; fails to improve the quality of the surrounding area; is therefore poorly designed; and does not meet the quality of being ‘Pleasant’ in Policy 14 (b) of National Planning Framework 4”.

The report says that the plans for the building, which would have a footprint of slightly more than 60.5 square metres, indicate that it is to accommodate gym equipment and a bath.

The application, which was lodged last December, attracted one objection and one expression of support.

The objection raised concerns over privacy and overlooking, noise and light pollution from the proposed gym, and the “detrimental effect on the value of the objector’s dwelling”.

The support comments also mentioned the potential for overlooking but said that if the windows in the proposed building were obscure glazed – something which, according to the planners’ report, is included in a revision to the original plans – they would have no objection.

The application will go before members of the LRB at a meeting on Wednesday, November 6.