Borough of Poole: Pure Town Planning has recently achieved planning permission for four separate applications on two adjacent sites for one client. Two planning applications were for the full conversion of two former offices on Ashley Road in Poole into four flats each. These two applications ran alongside a Prior Approval on the same two offices also for four flats on each site. Plans were supplied by Design and Development Associates.
The client came to us with this site with intentions to convert the two offices into eight flats but to extract maximum value from the site he wanted a two-storey rear extension to provide larger flats. This meant that the applicant could not apply for a Prior Approval from B1 Office Use to C3 Residential Use, as you cannot propose extensions under applications such as these.
After several meetings with the client, Pure Town Planning recommended that to establish the principle of flats on these two sites that a Prior Approval is submitted as the Local Planning Authority can only assess the application on issues relating to transport and highways, contamination and flood. Running alongside these two applications we recommend that two full applications were submitted which would give the client the all-important two-storey rear extension on both properties.
Further to this, we recommended that the applications on the two respective addresses to be kept separate to ensure that it is kept under the Affordable Housing Contribution threshold set in the Borough of Poole. This ensured that the applicant avoided any unnecessary cost.
One of the main challenges on this application was the under-provision of car parking available as there could only be a maximum of four car parking spaces for the eight flats. A thorough and well-presented argument demonstrated that this was a highly sustainable location, which offers everyday needs, a variety of local jobs and access to a range of public transport options.
Fortunately, both the Planning Officer and the Highways Officer agreed with our opinion and advised that with the addition of a cycle store the level of parking would be acceptable and recommended that all four applications should be approved. This means that the client now has his pick of four planning permissions to develop on these two sites.
If you have a site where you are looking to extract the maximum value from and want a company that can give you the best chance of doing this, why not give Pure Town Planning a call on 01202 585524 or email at info@puretownplanning.co.uk for a FREE 30 minute consultation.