Planning matters

Victoria Nursery, Westerfield Road. Temporary extension granted to 31 December 2017 to “allow orderly winding down of business”. The site is zoned for housing.

300 Old Foundry Road (& 4-10 St Margarets Plain). Proposed conversion of The Bar Fontaine by a new developer to 12 apartments. These very small apartments are just within the regulations. Three new dormers on second floor are adequate. The ventilation of rooms overlooking St Margarets Plain which is heavily polluted by both air and noise is problematic. We must hope this development goes ahead; the building is frequently identified in complaints lists as the worst eye-sore in the town.

49 Foxhall Road. Retrospective permission for various changes to what is now a four-chair dental surgery. The Chairman objected at Planning Committee to the industrial style disabled access ramp on the street side and the unacceptable shutters. However, permission was granted.

Great White Horse Hotel. A full application by a Norwich developer to renovate the first floor Trafalgar Room as an upstairs extension of the existing tenant's coffee shop, with a new staircase cut through. The relatively modern 4-storey rear block will be converted to 6 one- bedroom flats. The remainder of the hotel will be changed to a new business centre with individual business suites but a central kitchen and meeting rooms. There will be no work to the existing downstairs retail units. This would appear to be the only way the building can be brought back to economic viability. The only contentious part of the proposals is the staircase which will alter the important Trafalgar Room but it will allow it to come back into public access and use. On balance, with close control of the detailing of the staircase, this is acceptable. It has been granted consent.

66 Orford Street. Replacement of wooden windows with uPVC in a house in a Conservation Area subject to Article 4 development rights, this will surely be refused by the Conservation Officer. Additionally, there have been many local objections.

22-28 Crown Street. Probably built as a garage, it has been an Indian restaurant and a cannabis factory. It has planning permission for change of use to four apartments on the ground floor and three on the first. This application seeks consent for an extra flat on the first floor and the construction of a steel framed second floor with four flats.

Erection of 28 dwellings on redundant hockey pitch, Ipswich Sports Club. The hockey pitch has been refused floodlighting several times and on appeal; thus it has been replaced by a new one at Tuddenham Road. Further, the club wishes to build a 25 metre pool and needs to finance it. The site is zoned for housing in the current Ipswich plan. It would lead to increased traffic in rush hours on Henley Road; this, in our view, is not grounds for refusal but yet another reason for improving traffic flow in the area. The current proposal is for 9 four- bedroom houses, 4 three-bedroom semis, 7 two-bedroom semis, 2 three-bedroom detached and six one-bedroom flats, in two and three storey buildings of contemporary design. The layout of the terraced houses is noteworthy. Unfortunately, there is no developer as yet so this design may not be built although it was granted permission.

Mike Cook