Application 24/02046 – 74 to 82 High Street
Comments on Application 24/02046 – 74 to 82 High Street Outline application for a six-storey building fronting West Street to provide 29 apartments with parking, cycle and bin storage and conversion of part of the first and second floors fronting High Street to provide 7 residential units. Retention of existing commercial units at ground floor level creating an increase of 36 residential units overall. It is concerning that the piecemeal development of West Street continues without an overview of a long-term master plan or any proposals for the traffic management to accommodate the increase in vehicular traffic. This traffic relating to many new and proposed residential developments will be in addition to the existing requirements of shop delivery vehicles and shoppers. Within the documents supporting this current application, traffic on West Street is referred to as “light”. This will no longer be the case when the three pending schemes at 74 to 82, 88 to 90 and 106 to 114 are added to the existing Brunel House at 70 to 72 High Street. And there will be more such developments to come. Back in 2019 we commented on the proposals for the 6-storey block now completed at 70 to 72 High Street – Brunel House. The building line at ground floor level is right up to the West Street frontage, with no drop off or recessed area. This situation is aggravated by the lack of any parking provision for this block. The three planning applications further west do benefit from the provision of some parking spaces – although some residents will not have this facility. Kerb side access for delivery and drop off, Blue Badge parking and overall traffic movement will be a major issue. The current two-way, cul-de-sac arrangement is unsatisfactory and should probably be replaced by a one-way system running west to east. Such issues would be covered in the Town Centre SPD requested in the BLP. As we have stated in our objections to the proposed schemes for 88 to 90 High Street (24/01342) and 106 to 114 High Street (20/03508 amended) the height of blocks fronting West Street should be in line with the contextual height of 5-storeys recommended by the recently adopted Tall Buildings SPD. It is regrettable that Brunel House at 70 to 72 High Street is 6-storeys in height, but that permission dates from 2019. The ground floor of this application for 74 to 82 High Street is given over to parking, but we believe that the maximum 5-storey limit should apply. At 6-storeys this substantial new block will overshadow West Street, and there will be a severe loss of daylight for the Portland Arms. We welcome the provision of car parking at the ground floor level – although as stated above this will increase vehicular movements. All the dwellings achieve the minimum living space standards as required. Many flats have balcony/amenity space and there is provision of significant communal amenity space on a terrace at first floor level. There is an important pedestrian cut through along the western boundary of this site. This has become more significant since the rear entrance to Poundland (at 88 to 90 High Street) is no longer in use. It is the only pedestrian link between West Street and High Street, between King Street to the west and Marks and Spencer/Market Street to the east. Any proposals to develop 74 to 82 High Street should retain or enhance this footway for future use. It would appear to be difficult to retain this link during major construction work on the site. Consequently, we object to this application because it exceeds the 5-storey limit within the Tall Buildings SPD, it overshadows West Street, in particular the Portland Arms and it does not address the issue of the pedestrian cut through along the western boundary of the site. In addition, there is currently no evidence of a Traffic Management Plan for West Street to alleviate the significant increase in vehicular traffic that will be generated if this and numerous similar blocks of flats are granted planning permission.
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