Bournemouth Borough Council: Pure Town Planning has recently secured an appeal win for the conversion of the first and second floor dance studio into four flats with zero parking in Boscombe High Street. Plans were prepared by Nabney Plans.
There were two main issues relating to this proposal. The first issue that had to be addressed was the loss of the Dance Studio. The loss of the Dance Studio was justified through demonstrating there were adequate alternative facilities and services available locally meaning the closure of this Studio would not be detrimentally harmful to the local community.
The second issue was the proposed zero parking provision for the four flats. Strong evidence was put forward to support the application setting out that, due to the sustainable location of the site, parking demand would be lower than in other areas of Bournemouth. As well, it was set out to the Council that the existing use generated a higher parking demand than this proposal and nearby car parks offer permit parking for residents.
Despite the evidence that was put forward the Council were of the view that due to the lack of on-street parking spaces within 100 metres the zero parking was detrimental to highway safety. As well, they gave no weight to the existing use as they considered that customers would use the nearby car park whether local residents would rather find off-street parking spaces on local road then pay for a permit.
Not deterred by this refusal, we quickly took this to appeal where we set out the merits of this proposal where, we were successfully able to persuade the Inspector of the merits of the scheme and that the zero parking was acceptable.
If you have recently had your planning application refused, speak to Pure Town Planning for a free of charge consultation for a completely honest review of your chances at appeal. Remember you only get a small window to appeal your decision, which varies from 28 days to 6 months depending upon your application, so do not delay getting in touch with us to discuss your options.