Plans to demolish an Essex petrol station and construct an apartment complex in its place have been refused by the local authority.
Top 50 Indie Highway Stops Retail, which operates 16 forecourts, was seeking to demolish the BP forecourt on Rayleigh Road, Southend-on-Sea, Essex, and replace it with a four-storey apartment block featuring 26 flats, along with two retail units on the ground floor.
Southend-on-Sea Borough Council’s planners had recommended the project go ahead, but councillors voted against the project.
Rob McMullan, Liberal Democrat councillor for Eastwood Park Ward, told Southend’s planning committee that while he was “not opposed to an appropriate redevelopment of this site”, the “sheer size and scale of the development [is] completely out of character with the rest of the street scene”. McMullan added that the proposed development “would completely dominate the local area”.
Patrick Keyes, Southend’s planning team leader, said that a “key factor” for recommending approval for the plans was the fact that the land in question is a “large site” with “the capacity to take a building of that form, because of the quality of the design”.
Rob McMullan also voiced concerns that a proposed car parking ‘stacker’ – effectively a lift for vehicles – was the only way developers could get sufficient parking provision for the apartments on the plot and that this would be noisy in operation, while no parking provision for the retail units was included in the plans.
Keyes countered that environmental health officers were satisfied the car stacker will be able to operate “in a way that would meet the necessary conditions” regarding noise. He also said that retail stores in the surrounding area had been known to be able to operate without allocated parking .
McMullan said that neighbouring properties would be overlooked by the flats, while noting there had been 90 objections to the plans by locals; he also expressed disappointment that no affordable housing was included in the plans.
The planning committee ultimately voted to refuse planning permission for the project.
