An Elwood family has been blocked from building a single-bedroom extension to their home, which advocates believe exposes how heritage protections are failing to keep pace with efforts to boost modest development in well-serviced suburbs.

The application was knocked back by a planning tribunal despite having Port Phillip Council approval, only one objector and being opposite a three-storey apartment block near the Nepean Highway and Ripponlea station.

Home owner Kathryn Robson said she was stunned her modest second-storey addition was found to be visually unacceptable.

“It’s just ridiculous,” she said. “If we can’t build this, what can we build?”

Both housing and heritage advocates said the decision showed current heritage practice unnecessarily hindered efforts to accommodate Melbou

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