A Somerset couple have got the go-ahead to extend their home after an intervention by their Parish Council.

The couple submitted plans to Bath and North East Somerset Council to build an extension to their Bishop Sutton home to add an office space for working from home and a downstairs shower room that would keep the house accessible when they are older.

But planning officers at the Council claimed that the extension would be “harmful to the character of the cottage” and recommended the plans be refused.

The support of the local Parish Council, however, saw councillors on Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee decide to vote against this recommendation, however.

In a detailed letter, Stowey Sutton Parish Council said that building alterations to support home working were supported in their neighbourhood plan and that they had no objection to the plans.

Chair and vice chair of Bath and North East Somerset Council’s planning committee, Duncan Hounsell and Ian Halsall, said that the Parish Council’s support meant the planning application should come before the committee, rather than have the officers’ recommendation stand.

At their meeting on August 23, the planning committee voted unanimously to grant planning permission.

Councillor Tim Warren said: “I tend to put a lot of weight in these by Parish Councils. They’re in favour of this, its considered against the neighbourhood plan, […] so its actually what they want.”

He added: “There’s been a lot of building in Bishop Sutton so, to me, an extension which makes it better for the family to live in which everybody agrees with — or most people agree with — […] I’m quite happy to move to overturn the officer’s recommendation and I guess we need to delegate to permit.”