My concerns are identical to Tim Walder's. I would have no issue with the original plot for 27 Shipman Road used for a 3 bedroom house (in keeping with the style of the adjacent houses) with a side garden. But to build four flats that look like two houses from the front is overdoing it. Talk about trying to sweat your assets. One house will be 20% smaller than the other so that it can be accommodated within the plot and it will have a non-existent garden. I would object on the basis that it will unfair on the occupants, to live in such box like conditions.
It seems to me that the new owner not only saw the potential of rebuilding 27 Shipman Road, but using it's original side garden to squeeze in another (compromised) house. Hmmm, I blame all those property shows on tv.
I like the tree as well and wander if the removal would have any impact on the foundations for the three adjacent houses.
The houses west to the junction of Siddons Road and Shipman Road (also including Vestris, Treviso, Trilby) are all single occupancy family homes. Is this why the developer wants each house to look like a single 3 bedroom house with a single entrance from the front of the street, when in fact they are multiple dwellings? This could set a dangerous precedent and give other developers ideas that they can convert the original single occupancy family homes into flats. That I'm against.