Andy,

Yes been involved in two planning battles where I live and won both.

We won because of the increase in traffic close to a primary school and of course the danger of construction traffic during the build. This is where someone had decided to knock down a large 5 bed with big garden to build 4 to 6 smaller dwellings and make loads of money.

It was won because of the impact on the small road that runs by the school.

If they are maximising space in an estate where there is no danger to schools etc and probably no perceptible impact on traffic will be hard to fight sadly. The planners are happy to squeeze anything in anywhere these days due to the housing pressures they're under.

Remember the old joke about the Barratts development.

In the style of the News at 10 newsreader -

A tragic accident occured yesterday when a Barratts bricklayer got his trowel jammed between two houses!



Best of luck mate.