PP to be refused for large rear single storey extension

[rosielocket]

Hello, I'm a new poster who would be grateful for any thoughts, advice or guidance.
We live in a semi-detached house and have applied for a large rear single storey extension, depth 9m, width 4m, right on the boundary. The local council have told me they are going to refuse it as it is overbearing for our next door adjoining neighbour. The other option they have given us is to withdraw our plans and resubmit new ones. We then can't appeal against a refusal as one wasn't given as we withdrew our application.
Next door is owned by my husbands best friend who has no objections to the extension.
Currently separating the properties is a 6 foot hight fence. We had applied for a pitched roof (25 degrees). Would it make any difference if this was a flat roof? I don't want a flat roof really as not in keeping but keen to find a solution. The council are not very forthcoming, I think they want us to withdraw plans and then go to them for advice but knowing nothing about this sort of thing I am reluctant to do this in case it's the wrong thing to do and we lost the right to appeal?!?
House is long and thin, we can't build width-ways as existing rooms would not have windows then.
Thanks for reading this far!

 

[freddiemercurystwin]

Frankly a 9m deep extension sounds bonkers (or do you mean 9m wide and 4m deep?) Does you extension comply with the Local Plan guidance? If yes they will have difficulty refusing it if not you will likely get a rejection. Normally the planners will be prepared to talk to you or your agent about what they are prepared to accept and this is the route to take.

So the question is, does it conform to the Local Plan?

 

[^woody^]

What has your designer said about this, and why did he submit a design which had a good chance of being refused?

If the design does not contravene any specific planning policy or supplementary planning guidance, then the issue of overbearing would potentially be a subjective decision - which could be challenged on appeal

You need to discuss the merits of the design with your designer. If it contravenes published policy then you wont win on appeal and so would need to redesign