KINGSTON AND NORTH KINGSTON NEIGHBOURHOOD

Conservation Areas Advisory Committee

PLANNING APPLICATION COMMENT FORM DATE: 11 August 2021

N/A

RBK ref: 21/02177/FUL

Address: 146 - 152 Clarence Street Kingston Upon Thames KT1 1QP Planning Officer: Karen Coles

Description of proposed works: Retention of lower ground and ground floor levels for retail use, change of use of upper floors from retail/ancillary storage/office space to residential use, and construction of 3 additional storeys to provide a total of 56 residential dwellings

APPRAISAL

By full committee on …… 11 August 2021 …… with …… 8 …… members present

Issued on 16 Aug 2021

1. Positive support		2. No objection
3. Objection		4. Objection unless revised as below	X
5. No comment/neutral		6. Lack of detail
7. Decision already issued

Reason for objection:

Objection unless revised as below.

We are generally supportive of this application. We like the developer’s thoughtful & imaginative approach to the character & appearance of the extended/new building, in particular the profile & palette of the proposed upper floors & crown.

That said we do have some concerns & our support of this PA is conditional on them being resolved satisfactorily, as follows:

a) in our view the new building height is one floor too many & should be limited to six storeys in order to manage the proportions of the building & its listed & locally listed neighbours;

b) we find the proposed public realm to be very meagre & unambitious in scope. We acknowledge the technical challenges to improving this as set out in the applicant’s DAS but believe a good solution would be to relocate the David Mach sculpture to a more prominent site in the town (eg Clarence Street West) & tidy up the surrounding cycle paths, thus creating an opportunity for a more substantive new public realm adjacent to the building in question;

& c) although not directly a conservation issue, we are concerned about aspects of the residential amenity in the proposed new building, that is the size & mix of units (eg only 20% would be 3 bed, 50% short of planning guidance); restricted outdoor communal space notwithstanding a small roof garden; & limited sun/ daylight levels particularly to the lower floors & north face. Each of these factors should be addressed by the applicant to meet policy guidance.