Last year my wife and I bought an end-of-terrace victorian house. Originally, there was a house next to ours, but that got torn down after WWII due to bomb damage. The neighbors on the corner bought that land, but don't seem to have ever made good use of it in the 50+ years. Anyway...

We just received a letter from the planning office to comment on the proposal to build 4 flats on the site. 2 two-beds, 2 one-beds. 4 flats! Of course they will join the walls as there isn't enough space to leave an alleyway between the buildings. So we would then have 3 neighbors, two of which could be rented tenants. The whole road is single family dwellings, so a new flat development would be completely out of character. Almost all properties on our road are victorian, with the exception of a terrace of 3 that look to be at least 20/30 years old.

The main points I have to argue against planning permission are: devaluation due to no longer being end of terrace and the potential for noise disturbance from two flats. What else can I do? We would be less opposed to this if it were just another single-family dwelling that would mix well with the surrounding period properties.

All constructive advice welcome.