BCP Council (Bournemouth): This week, after a year long ‘slog’ with the Council, Matt Annen was very happy to receive outline planning permission to demolish an existing hotel building (known as the Chequers Hotel on the West Cliff in Bournemouth) and erect a 4-5 storey block comprising of 27 flats arranged as 21 residential and 6 holiday flats with car parking, bin and cycle stores. The scheme was designed by Jon Harrison at Harriplan.

The site had quite a complex planning history including a previous consent on site for 20 flats, but essentially the changes to the parking SPD which came into effect at the start of last year meant that a previous scheme for 27 flats which was dismissed solely for lack of parking could now be considered acceptable on the basis of the newly adopted policy. Notwithstanding this, the scheme had to still be adapted to also reflect other key policy changes (such as meeting the National minimum space standards and meeting the latest cycle provision requirements). Whilst it was a long process due to a number of different issues which arose during the process, we were pleased to finally get this consent over the line for the clients.

If you own/run/have control over a hotel business and would like to explore whether there would be residential development potential then contact Pure Town Planning on 01202 585524 or email info@puretownplanning.co.uk for an honest and confidential planning appraisal.