Bournemouth Borough Council: Pure Town Planning are delighted to have obtained planning permission for a four-storey building consisting of 13 apartments in the desirable East Cliff Conservation Area in Bournemouth. The scheme, promoted by developer Harlequin Homes, was designed by local architects Anders Roberts Cheer.

 A previous scheme on the site for a 5-storey building comprising of 18 flats was refused by Bournemouth Borough Council due to an “unacceptable bulk and height of building of excessive footprint and scale in relation to the site area available. The resultant building would constitute a congested form of overdevelopment of the site and be at odds with the more spacious pattern of development evidenced in this part of the East Cliff Conservation Area.”

Following this refusal, the application was taken to appeal but it was unfortunately dismissed in September 2016 with the Inspector upholding the Council’s concerns with regards to the height of the building: The Inspector commented that being much taller than No 38, along with the verticality of the design adding to this sense of height, the proposed development would dominate the setting of No 38… and would not reflect the historical development with No 40 having been constructed as a subordinate building to No 38.”

Following the appeal, in accordance with good practice Pure Town Planning sought pre-application advice from the Council regarding a revised, reduced scheme of 3-4 storeys which received positive feedback and led the way for the revised application.

Pure Town Planning put together a comprehensive justification detailing how this revised scheme addressed the issues raised by the previous planning officer and Planning Inspector to present a viable and attractive flatted scheme which protected the character of the conservation area. The Planning officer agreed that all previous concerns had been overcome and approved the application under delegated powers just before Christmas.

It’s also worth pointing out that with the help of Simon Corp at S106 Affordable Housing we were able to successfully argue away the affordable contribution, which our clients were very pleased with.

Whilst this planning process took longer than we had hoped, it demonstrates that here at Pure Town Planning we never give up on a site, we are committed and driven to delivering that all important consent for our clients. But not just any old consent – the most valuable consent that we can for our clients.

If you have a site with a negative planning history, or if you already have an approval but would like us to review that consent for you to ensure that you are extracting the maximum value from the site then give Pure Town Planning a call on 01202 585524 or email at info@puretownplanning.co.uk for a FREE 30 minute consultation.