THE owner of a row of cottages said he decided to build a three-bedroom house on part of their gardens after residents told him that they were too big to maintain.

Hew Dalrymple applied for planning permission to build a “modest” three-bedroom cottage on garden ground at the back of the cottages at number 7, 9, and 11 Nungate Road, North Berwick.

He told a meeting of East Lothian Council’s planning committee that the garden ground at the back of the three cottages in question was the responsibility of the tenants and a mix of private and communal garden space.

He said: “Some residents find they are difficult to maintain, as I was made aware of a couple of years ago when one resident approached me about making them smaller.”

Mr Dalrymple, who owns the land, had initially applied to build the new home, which will be marketed as a long-term rental property, to the west of the site, but that was rejected by planners last September, who described the original proposal as substantially reducing the gardens of the neighbouring cottages, appearing crammed onto the site and disrupting the historic link between the gardens and the cottages.

His revised proposal put the property at the opposite end of the site, reduced some of the garden ground which would be lost and included the demolition of coal sheds at the east gable of one of the cottages.

Mr Dalrymple described the new property as a “modest cottage” which he said was designed to blend in with the existing properties.

Councillor Jane Henderson, ward member for North Berwick Coastal, called the application to the planning committee for a decision because it was in a conservation area.

She described the proposed new property as “trying to squeeze a quart into a pint pot”.

She said: “I fully respect that a lot of work has been done to amend the house and downsize it a little bit. I am not entirely convinced that the reasons for refusing the first application are not almost entirely valid this time.”

Councillor Brian Small, committee member, said that he had visited the site and found no issue with the size of the gardens.

He said: “The gardens looked perfect and I think we risk losing something here if we just squeeze something in for the sake of squeezing something in.

“It has a lot of charm and that has to be protected.”

However, Councillor Norman Hampshire, planning convenor, argued that North Berwick needed rental accommodation.

He said: “This is a new home for rent which is something that is hard to find in North Berwick.”

The committee voted by six votes to five to approve the planning application.