PLANS for a new home in the Blashford area of Ringwood have been refused because planners felt its 'monolithic form' was too big for the countryside.

The owners of Lake House in Woolmer Lane, where the average house price is £440,00, wanted to demolish the existing property on the site, a Victorian detached villa, and replace it with an architect-designed new-build.

Despite support from almost all of the property's immediate neighbours, New Forest District Council refused the development saying: "In order to safeguard the long term future of the countryside, the Local Planning Authority considers it important to resist the cumulative affect of significant enlargements being made to rural dwellings.

"Consequently Policy DM20 of the Local Plan Part 2: Sites and Development Management Plan seeks to limit the proportional increase in the size of such dwellings recognising the benefits this would have in minimising the impact of buildings and human activity generally in the countryside and the ability to maintain a balance in the housing stock."

The council said the proposal would result in a building which was 'unacceptably large in relation to the original dwelling', which would 'undesirably add to pressures for change which are damaging to the future of the countryside'.

"By reason of its size, excessive horizontal emphasis and monolithic form, height and mass which is exacerbated by its use of a full two storey eaves height and flat roof, the proposed replacement dwelling would be out of keeping and far more imposing and visually intrusive than the existing property on the site," said the council. It added that the proposal would be 'to the detriment of the character and appearance of this sensitive rural countryside location.'

An appeal has been submitted.