A bid to demolish a former restaurant and create homes and commercial space isn’t a recipe for success, according to planners.
Sharon Ashton applied to Rochdale Council for permission to demolish the site of the Florence restaurant at 61 Church Street, Heywood, and create a three-storey building, with commercial space on the ground floor and two three-bed flats on the first and second floors. The application also included parking at the rear.
In documents submitted with the application, CD Wilkinson Plans said: “The site is located on Church Street, a busy main road in the centre of Heywood. An Italian restaurant currently sits on the site. The site is adjacent to a large three-storey building comprising residential flats.
“The external walls will be finished with brick other than ground floor front elevation which will be finished with white / cream render. Windows to be white UPVC to residential flats and grey aluminium to commercial front elevation.”
Plans include the new three-storey block being set back on the site, with parking accessed from Temple Street.
But planners felt plans for the restaurant site lacked vital ingredients.
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Refusing the application, a planning officer noted: “By reason of its materiality, use of fenestration and absence of any meaningful architectural detailing, the proposed development would fail to respond positively to the character and appearance of the surrounding area and would ultimately fail to be well-designed.
“Furthermore, the poor design also does not provide a safe and secure development free from fear of crime.
“By reason of its excessive scale, height, massing and insufficient separation distances, the proposed development would have a detrimental impact on the living environment of neighbouring properties in terms of loss of light, overshadowing, visual dominance and overbearing effects.
“The proposed development fails to provide an appropriately sized, placed and orientated windows to all habitable rooms and would not provide adequate outlook and levels of natural light.
“The application has failed to provide sufficient information in respect of a comprehensive drainage strategy … that they would not increase the risk of flooding within an area identified as having critical drainage problems.”
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Dining and Cooking