Council loses appeal over plan to turn Telford offices into flats

A planning inspector has ruled that there are enough car parking spaces in the streets of Donnington to be able to cope with plans to turn former offices into eight flats.

Telford & Wrekin Council officers had refused permission for the former Wrekin Housing Trust building at The Parade saying that it did not have its own dedicated parking.

Building owner Lewis Jones had appealed against the decision and a planning inspector has agreed with an assessment that the local streets had enough empty spaces to cope.

The owner has since made a late bid to include spaces to the rear of the building, which may ease local concerns.

But the inspector ruled that the offer was made too late to be considered in his ruling. They believe that the local streets have enough spaces anyway.

Officials at the council agreed that there are areas of public space within the immediate area.

But they considered it “unlikely that residents will be content in parking their vehicle 200m away from the property, where it cannot be seen, for long periods of time or overnight.

“Furthermore, it is not considered that this parking arrangement would be sufficient when carrying out tasks such as bringing shopping into the dwelling.”

The inspector wrote that the normal requirement would be for 11 parking spaces but because car ownership levels in the area are low, the proposal would only need five.

Car parking standards “are a guide and should be flexibly applied depending on a range of factors“, the inspector ruled.

“Based on access to the site being continued as existing and the proposed layout plans, the requirement for safe site access would be achieved and maintained,” the inspector wrote.

“A local parking survey was undertaken to review availability of on-street parking spaces within a 200m radius of the site,” the inspector wrote.

“Four hundred and twenty-two parking spaces were identified, with between 46 and 55 spaces free for use at peak evening times.“

They added: “The parking survey has identified parking availability in the vicinity of the site that would easily accommodate the requirement for 11 parking spaces, without significant displacement for neighbouring occupiers.

“In doing so, the survey also confirmed the availability of parking spaces for the anticipated requirement for five parking spaces.“

The inspector concluded that the development would have a “negligible effect on the local transport infrastructure and would provide safe site access”.

The inspector also noted that there had been objections to the “lack of bin storage” but they noted that this did not need to be assessed.

“The National Planning Policy Framework states that conditions should be kept to a minimum and only imposed where they are necessary, relevant to planning and to the development to be permitted, enforceable, precise, and reasonable in all other aspects.“