Haymoor Road mixed use planning consultant PooleBorough of Poole: Pure Town Planning are delighted to have recently obtained planning permission for a three-storey building consisting of  9 flats and 2 office units in the Newtown Ward in Poole. The scheme was designed by architects Anders Roberts Cheer.

The existing building on the site was considered to make a negative contribution to the area. It was no longer fit for purpose and, having been vacated by its last tenant in 2011 and sold to the current owner in 2012, it has been used by the applicant for the storage and distribution of materials in association with their building company but has provided no meaningful on-site employment function for sometime.

This scheme followed a previous approval on the site for 8 flats and 2 offices which secured by another local planning consultant. Pure Town Planning felt there was an opportunity to improve upon that consent in order to maximise the development potential and thus returns from the site. Spotting an opportunity to not only secure a consent, but secure the most valuable consent for our clients is what we do best! So how did we go about it?….

Haymoor Road mixed use planning consultant BournemouthThis is a bit technical, but stay with me! The site is a designated ‘existing employment area (EEA)’. Policy PCS2 of the Poole Core Strategy seeks to retain sites within the EEA for uses falling within classes B1, B2 and B8 of the Town and Country Planning Use Classes Order 1995. Proposals should not diminish the employment value or potential of land falling within the EEA. The proposal was to create office space falling within Class B1, which is policy compliant, subject to the employment provision not being diminished. The approved offices accommodated (based on a density of 12sqm per full time equivalent employee) a maximum of 11.08 (so 11 employees to the nearest whole) employees. This was based on the actual office “shop floor” area. The proposed offices would accommodate 10.75 (again 11 employees to the nearest whole) employees, so we argued that there was not likely to be any “material” loss of employment as a result of this revised scheme.

On top of this the existing premises were used by the applicant for purposes falling within Class B8 (Storage and Distribution). No employees were currently based at the site – it is used as a lock-up store for materials associated with the applicant’s construction business for the past few years. So it was argued there was still a betterment over the existing situation.  The proposal was deemed to be consistent with the provisions of national and local planning policies by the planning officer and approved within the 8 week target date.

Hopefully this short example demonstrates our proactive, pragmatic and problem-solving approach to extracting the maximum value from development sites. If you have recently received a planning permission and wonder if we can better it for you, then give us a call on 01202 585524 or email at info@puretownplanning.co.uk for a FREE, confidential, no obligation consultation. What have you got to lose?