A plan to convert a Herefordshire garage into five houses and 15 apartments has been abandoned.
Top Garage, at the junction of Hereford Road (A465) and Panniers Lane, across the official southern border of Bromyard, is currently a gas station and vehicle service station.
With distinctive roof tile shingles covering the upper two floors, the planned “visually striking” concept is intended to attract a wide range of buyers, “including first-time buyers, professionals and empty nests”, according to the application.
The project would have consisted of an L-shaped block next to the existing HOPE center, which offers a range of services for adults and children. To the south of it there would have been three single-family and one semi-detached houses, with a view to the east of Hereford Road.
It would have meant replacing the “unsightly” garage building with “something more appropriate than the southern gateway to the city,” says the application.
The garage business, which employs seven full-time workers, would then be relocated “to a more convenient and accessible location” elsewhere in town to better compete with the recently modernized Texaco repair shop on the A44 main road through town, it said Application .
However, the rejection notification states that the proposal fell short on six different points:
- It would increase the phosphate pollution of the Lugg SAC (special protection area) – a legal obstacle that is currently blocking many developments in this area;
- It would be “unjustified unsustainable residential development in the countryside outside of any settlement boundaries”;
- It was not possible to integrate into the motorway network or to get to and from the city on foot or by bike;
- The housing mix would not help meet local housing needs;
- It could neither contribute to the local infrastructure nor create affordable housing;
- It would have “unacceptably negative effects” on its neighbors, including vulnerable groups.
Nine letters of objection were filed despite the city council’s support.
However, the HOPE Center said it was “extremely concerned about the negative impact the application will have on our ability to maintain services in their current format”.
It also feared that future residents of the adjacent block would be supplied with noise nuisance reports.