We don’t want ‘penthouse’ flats

A DEVELOPER’S bid to add an extra floor to a proposed block of flats in Henley has been opposed by neighbours and the town council.

Ressance, of Newbury, already has permission to convert the three-storey Hallmark House off Station Road, also known as The Hub, from offices into a block of 23 flats.

Now it has applied to South Oxfordshire District Council for consent to build another six flats on an additional “penthouse” floor.

There would be a private communal garden on the roof which the company says would provide spectacular views of the town and River Thames.

Ressance says the scheme would be on a similar scale to the new flats being created by the conversion of the former Isis House office block on the other side of the road.

But Henley Town Council’s planning committee has recommended the application is rejected on the grounds that the building would be excessive development and would overlook neighbouring properties.

It claims the five-storey block would be 2.5m taller than the Grade II listed Imperial Hotel opposite, which councillors said would reduce the hotel’s “significance” within Henley’s conservation area. Ressance disputes this, saying it would in fact be 2.5m shorter.

Committee chairman Ken Arlett said: “The unneighbourly design is too high, imposing and too close to the neighbours while the mass is too great for the area.

“The design doesn’t respect the local street scene and vernacular. The council would like to see more of a broken facade which respects the significance of the existing buildings rather than a large, flat, characterless frontage and high, flat roofline.”

Jill Abbink, whose flat above Station News shares a boundary wall with Hallmark House, said the higher walls would channel noise and air pollution towards her home.

It would also take away most of the sunlight from her roof terrace and she would suffer a dramatic loss of privacy and more noise in the evenings.

Mrs Abbink said: “The existing building is not a beauty but I am surprised that such a modernist and extremely high building is being proposed in our small market town. [It] looks more like an office building than the old Hub.

“The abstract horizontal design is very out of place, most particularly in this setting. [It] is just a huge flat box with a lid on it with no real connection at all to its surroundings on street level.”

Steve Ludlow and Geoffrey Taylor, whose flat is in the same building as Mrs Abbink’s, said: “This is a monstrosity and completely out of keeping with the local architecture. This is a residential area, not a building site.

“The proposed new height is totally unacceptable and the height of the current building is as high as the developer should be allowed.”

There is number of letters of support for the application from people who own or work for businesses based at The Hub.

They include Richard Garton, from Shiplake, Jackie Outram, from Sonning Common, Richard Little, from Caversham, and Lance Robinson, of Lambridge Wood Road, Henley, who are directors of The Hub Property Management Company, and Trevor Boynton and Matt Burnett, who work for the Communications Group.

Opponent Geoff Walsh, of Wyndale Close, Henley, called this “a rather clumsy exercise in gerrymandering involving the so-called supporters of this loony proposal”.

He added: “Please kick this plan by greedy developers into the long grass.”

Ressance says the site is in a “highly sustainable” location because of its proximity to bus and rail routes. It says the design would have a “positive” impact on the street scene and would not affect the Imperial Hotel.

It says the flats would be of a high standard and the bigger building would have a “compatible, contemporary appearance”. Ressance says there would be a 38 parking spaces, mostly in a section of the Station Road car park which is currently reserved for users of The Hub with additional bays in the existing undercroft.

A spokesman said: "As a privately-owned housebuilder, Ressance delivers well-designed, high-quality new homes that result in very high levels of customer and neighbour satisfaction. 

"As part of this application we have engaged and will continue to engage in positive consultation with stakeholders.  This has so far included direct consultation with the public, including neighbours, and Henley Town Council. 

"We are giving full consideration to all constructive and accurate input and to proactively respond to concerns raised by neighbours. We are in the process of refining the proposed scheme in positive response to comments received and will issue new drawings in the near future."

Ressance’s original planning application was approved under permitted development rights, which were introduced by the Government in 2013 to help tackle a national housing shortage.

They mean that planning authorities can only reject applications for converting offices into flats on very limited grounds.

The same rules were used to allow the conversion of the former Smith Centre office block off Fair Mile and the former Innovex House in Reading Road, which was occupied by RPS Energy and is now a block of flats call Hill View.