They planned to abandon the existing ground floor of their three storey detached home in Pandy, near Abergavenny and move their kitchen, lounge and utility room into the new extension that would be on stilts with an external staircase. He said the extension would “allow us to remain in our home during flooding and provide a safe secondary means of escape.” But head of planning Andrew Jones said planning officers and the council’s landscape officer considered the extension to be a “confused design” that would be “out of context” while the “large amount of cladding” would “emphasise the mass of the extension”. Committee members expressed sympathy for the family but most said they couldn’t support the application. The application was refused permission with nine councillors voting in support of the officers’ recommendation while three voted against it and one abstained.