UK: Plans for a £6 million aparthotel, shops and restaurant complex in Clacton town centre have been dismissed by a planning inspector.
East-West Design and Build applied to construct a new seven-storey building made up of a 51-unit aparthotel along with three retail or restaurant units, at the site of the former Osborne Hotel in Rosemary Road.
The developer was given permission to demolish the building, but ruled proposals for a new building were not in keeping with the conservation areas.
London-based developer Royston Simons appealed against the council’s decision, but following an appeal hearing independent planning inspector Jonathon Parsons has now backed the council.
He described the design as “bulky and domineering” and “markedly at odds within the traditional buildings in the conservation area”.
He also ruled the development would “harm the living conditions of the occupiers of neighbouring properties on Beach Road”.
Simons said the plans were needed to help regenerate the site, which had become an eyesore and a magnet for antisocial behaviour before it was demolished.
“There’s no animosity with the council – we do want to work with them,” he said. “I would like to build something there in memory of my mother, who was a Clacton resident. I have got big ties to Clacton. They’re being stringent because it’s a conservation area, but – not meaning to be detrimental – it is run down. It’s such a shame. It would have been a landmark development and could have encouraged others to invest in the town. They want us to replicate a twee town house there, but it needs to be of a large scale to work. Despite the current economic siltation, I still am prepared to do something there.”
The former Osborne Hotel included the first pair of villas to be built in Clacton, dating back to 1871.
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