BCP Council (Bournemouth): Neil McKeon is pleased to confirm planning consent has been secured for a change of use and hotel conversion to 9 apartments with associated parking in Belle Vue Road, Southbourne.
In 2018, an application to convert and extend the Cliff House Hotel to residential apartments was refused by the Council on grounds of harmful impact upon neighbouring amenity, as well as resulting harm to the tourism function in the area through the loss of the hotel.
This fresh application, with plans prepared by ARC Architecture, aimed to overcome concerns with the previous proposal and sought to secure a straight conversion of the existing building. In doing so, the character and contribution of the building to the surrounding context will be safeguarded. As such, the proposed change of use minimised any harmful impact upon the adjacent amenity and privacy of Youell Court to the western boundary.
The other key hurdle to overcome was addressing the Council’s tourism policy CS28 – which seeks to retain existing stock of tourist accommodation. The proposal was brought before the Council’s Tourism SPD Panel in 2022 and subsequently a detailed commercial viability report was prepared by Sturt & Company. This viability evidence satisfied the Council’s testing parameters and the Tourism Officer confirmed the limited future potential for a successful tourism function – thereby securing support to change the use to residential, resulting in a much improved utilisation of the property.
If you have a hotel business in the area and would like to explore options of potential residential redevelopment, then contact Pure Town Planning on 01202 585524 or email info@puretownplanning.co.uk for an appraisal.