Flats plan near Stourbridge town centre rejected for being too big
A proposal to build eight new apartments on derelict land near Stourbridge town centre has been thrown out for being “excessively large”.
Nash Estates Ltd had submitted proposals to create a “high quality” large block of flats on land next to shops on Norton Road, which it argued would have boosted the area.
But Dudley Council planning officers rejected the scheme and said the size of the development would be overly prominent and out of character with the area.
The original plans submitted had proposed nine apartments for the area and this was then amended to reduce it by one.
Agents J Mason Associates said: “The site is currently empty with former uses mainly designated as parking.
“It sits close the town centre of Stourbridge and so will provide a variation of housing types for the area. This site could be viewed as an ideal opportunity to create a residential development, with amenities surrounding the site.
“The three fundamental characteristics that the development will exhibit are that it will play a central role in creating a local focal point and establishing a new part of the community in the area; it will deliver high quality accommodation to the local community; and it will redevelop and reinvigorate a site which is currently empty.
“This will be achieved by integrating new housing into the site in a sensitive manner. The proposed scheme will provide new residential accommodation, creating a positive edition to the local community.”
But in the decision notice Helen Martin, director of regeneration and enterprise, said: “The proposed development would form an excessively large, overly prominent incongruous addition that would form an inappropriate cramped and contrived form of development on this site.
“The development will result in an incongruous feature within the street that would have an inappropriate bulk and massing as well as prominence in relation to the neighbouring property and therefore appear highly conspicuous in the street scene.
“The proposed development by virtue of its scale, height and number of units would constitute an over-development of a constrained site and would be out of keeping with the character and layout of the surrounding area.”
