Click here to see map for location of 24-28 West Street.

19/01021/FUL Demolition of existing building and construction of a new part 7 and part 8 storey building containing ground floor commercial/retail (E use class) and 25 residential units (C3 Use) on upper levels and associated development.

The original application for a 13-storey block of flats on this site attracted more than 500 objections (including that of ECS) and led to a major revision of the scheme, reducing the height to 7/8 storeys.

The site is in the Town Centre Conservation Area and, if built to 8 storeys will also overlook the adjacent Stamford Green Conservation Area. Even with the reduced height, the obvious problem remains the sheer bulk, scale, design and height of the proposed building. This would adversely impact and harm the character and appearance of the area, quite apart from the loss of the Furniss building, itself a heritage feature.

In addition, the Society has issues with the lack of parking, and with sustainability related to both building itself and to the construction process, which would appear inevitably to be complex and imply prolonged disturbance to neighbours, traffic flow through the town and possibly the railway.

For all these reasons, the Society has written a further letter of objection, which can be seen here.

See our previous letter here.