With its thatched roof and pretty garden, it is a cottage that truly befits the description chocolate box.

Unfortunately for owner Sandy Hollowood, however, council planners deemed her sweet little home could be part of an assortment too  -  and have allowed two futuristic-looking houses to be built next to it.

Mrs Hollowood, 53, says the bright white, glass-fronted houses have destroyed the charm of her Dorset cottage and blighted the beauty of its cliff-top road location.

Enlarge 

Bird's eye view: The houses overlook Christchurch Bay in Dorset

Other residents have called her home 'a rose between two thorns' as they campaign against further jarring developments.

Some accuse the council of trying to turn the genteel area into a new version of the nearby millionaire's row of Sandbanks.

Mrs Hollowood, a personnel manager who has lived in her cottage overlooking Christchurch Bay in Dorset for 15 years, said: 'There was a huge outcry when the first one was given planning permission. It is so imposing and overlooks my cottage, which could have been avoided.

'Before I knew it, the house on the other side was knocked down. I had a feeling we were going to have another one built and I was right. Having one extremely modern house is one thing but on both sides I find incongruous.

1. Windows on the world: Both of the modern-style houses feature large amounts of glass

'I often hear people who walk past my home say, "How could the council allow two modern properties to be built as bookends either side of that  beautiful cottage?" I don't blame my new neighbours for this, the real culprits here are the council.'

Local resident Beryl Maycock, a retired nurse, has written to Christchurch Borough Council to beg them not to allow any more similar homes to be built on the road. 

She wrote: 'The first project took three to four years and then another Hollywood- style property on the other side appeared. Please, Christchurch council, no more.'

Enlarge 

2. A home from history: Sandy Hollowood's typically English thatched cottage

In 2004 solicitors Simon and Moira Coath bought a 1930s house on one side of the cottage, knocked it down and built a large, detached home with four bedrooms and bathrooms, two studies, a games room and sunroom.

Then property developers Rick and Margaret Baldwin bought the property on the other side for £800,000 in 2005. They applied for planning permission to demolish it to make way for a three-storey, four-bedroom house.

Mrs Coath said: 'All the houses on this road are very different, there isn't one style. The house here before us was of no architectural interest. We have done a good job in blending our house in with a thatched cottage.'

Wayne Barroball, head of planning at Christchurch council, said: 'We felt a modern design of high quality would enhance the area and take it to another level. I think they both work very well and add to the character of the area.'

Enlarge 

3. The shock of the new: The other house given approval by Christchurch Borough Council