Planning news in and around Midsomer Norton this week includes:

28 Fosseway South, (under reference

The homeowners of 12 Withies Park, Midsomer Norton, (under reference 22/00434/FUL) have applied to build a single storey rear extension.

Planning decisions made this week include:

B&NES has decided that an application by St John The Baptist Church, in Midsomer Norton to cut down a Weeping Ash is exempt from the need for a planning ruling.

Flat 7, Midsomer Apartments, at 36 Chilcompton Road, in Midsomer has been given permission to make their dormer window wider.

And the Local Democracy Reporter writes that plans to add two storeys onto a Bath building to house 67 students have been thrown out.

Bathwick Tyres on the ground floor of Frome House was set to be unaffected by proposals to expand the vacant office block by 60 per cent and give it a "conventional and inoffensive" look.

Objectors said the area around Lower Bristol Road had become a "dumping ground for student accommodation" and was "fast resembling a university campus".

Others accused the developer of greed and said there would be no public benefit.

Crossman said in its application no one wanted to use the office space but the significant demand for student accommodation – recently recognised by the Planning Inspectorate, when plans for 80 student rooms at the Plumb Center were allowed on appeal.

Miss A Phillips, one of the 43 objectors, said: "The Twerton and Oldfield Park areas of Bath have suffered more than most at the hand of the unfettered expansion of the universities. It has destroyed communities and continues to do so with the constant creation of yet more student accommodation.

"This is another development which feathers the nest of the applicant, fuels the lack of affordable housing in the city for residents, will cause more disruption for local residents, adversely impact on the local demographic and have a negative impact on the locality and the historic environment.

"There is absolutely no public benefit in this application and it should be refused."

Crossman claimed 22 shared houses known as HMOs would be converted back into family homes if the Frome House scheme was approved.

Objector Tash Hobbs was not convinced, saying: "The infrastructure cannot cope with another student block in this area of the city. Whether students would even wish to live there is another matter, and the idea of freeing up HMOs to return to private use is laughable as long as PBSA (purpose-built student accommodation) rental prices remain as high as they are."

For Cat Hunter, the biggest concern was the lack of parking. She said the car-free policy at the nearby Old Bakery development in Jews Lane was "entirely unenforceable", and as a young mum the thought of struggling to park on a daily basis was "incredibly worrying".

Bath Preservation Trust chief executive Alex Sherman said the three-storey building is already significant and would be overdeveloped if two more floors were added.

He told Bath and North East Somerset Council's planning committee on February 9 the "bland" faux Georgian design would be incongruous, disingenuous and harm the World Heritage Site, adding: "The authority should be asking for more than a conventional and inoffensive design on a site which is described as a gateway location to the entrance of Bath."

Westmoreland ward councillor June Player said the scheme, combined with the Old Bakery project in Jews Lane that will provide another 63 student flats, would create a "hemmed in, oppressive and dominating" feel.

She said the community was out of balance and if there is a need for student housing, it should be provided on the university campuses.

Southdown's Councillor Dine Romero told the meeting the five-storey building would tower over homes in Albany Road and create a new and unwanted sense of enclosure, overlooking and a loss of privacy.

"I've had several residents tell me how upset they are about this – so much so that some of the longer term residents of over 30 years are now looking to move," she said.

Proposing refusal, Cllr Rob Appleyard said he was not aware of any HMOs being turned back into residential properties, and argued that trying to stop students bringing their cars is a "complete and utter waste of time".

He told the meeting: "We have people desperately wanting to live in the city and find affordable accommodation. If this was going to be developed, co-living would be much more advantageous to our city.

"This is an overdevelopment. It's very opportunistic. This is an application too far."

Cllr Eleanor Jackson agreed, saying: "This is the wrong type of accommodation to meet our needs. We're haemorrhaging graduates because they can't find suitable affordable accommodation in Bath."

The application was refused by eight votes to one against, with a single abstention.