Locals were divided over the plans for the Grade II listed Cookham Dene estate when they were submitted to Bromley Council earlier this year.
The proposals would have seen a hanger and lift built under the manor house’s grounds, allowing a helicopter to take off after being raised to ground level.
Some neighbours feared that there would be too much noise as a result of the helicopter taking off and landing.
And despite rejecting some of these concerns, council planning officers have now decided to throw out the plans over fears it would harm green belt land.
The local authority said that the application had not explained any special circumstances which would outweigh the impact the proposed lift would have on the green belt.
“Having had regard to the above it is considered that the development in the manner proposed is not acceptable,” planning officers concluded.
They also acknowledged that most of the concerns from neighbours about the helicopter lift had related to noise from take off and landing.
But the council said that the application did not seek permission to use the grounds for flying the helicopter, but only for constructing the lift.
This meant that it did not consider helicopter operations to be within the scope of the proposal, and as such, did not take these concerns into account when making its final decision.
Officers ultimately determined that a helicopter lift would not harm neighbours or the Grade II listed manor house.
Environmental concerns about trees and wildlife were also dismissed.
The current owner of the manor house needs to “regularly access” and make use of a helicopter, planning documents said.
In an email submitted in support of the application, the manor house’s previous owner claimed that the four-acre garden was often used for helicopter landings when they lived there between 2002 and 2022.
Despite this, Bromley Council planning officers said that using the garden for helicopter landings “has not been established in planning terms with no previous applications submitted in relation to this use”.
If the lift had been approved, it would have been built of concrete and set eight metres underground.
A grass-covered lid would have enclosed the helicopter, which would have only been visible when taking-off or landing.
