11/00713/F - Borough Council of King's Lynn & West Norfolk

The PPS5 defines conservation as the process of maintaining and managing change to a
heritage asset in a way that sustains and where appropriate enhances its significance. It
requires that Local Authorities take into consideration the desirability of sustaining and
enhancing the significance of heritage assets and of utilising their positive role in placeshaping
(HE7.4.)and new development making a positive contribution to the character and
local distinctiveness of the historic environment (HE7.5). It further states that there should
be a presumption in favour of the conservation of designated heritage assets (HE9.1) and
gives guidance on the affect of the application on the setting of a heritage asset (HE10.1).
HE11 refers to enabling development and will be a consideration of the concurrent Planning
Application.
To deal with the two elements of the application in turn:-
1) The extension to the stables/gig house to the rear of Limes House will increase its size
considerably and, because of the new access, reduce the size of the garden to both listed
buildings. The new 1½ storey section will also be seen from the church yard although the
single storey section will barely be visible above the existing wall. Overall, the proposal is
considered to respects character and appearance of the existing building and, in accordance
with pre-application advice, and its height is such that it will not be detrimental to the setting
of the adjacent listed buildings.
2) This application proposes the repair and restoration of London House which will remain
essential as it was in terms of appearance. The shop window will go to be replaced with a
pair off sash windows to present a similar appearance to the adjacent houses and three new
windows will be inserted into the blank gable. The loss of some fabric to create new windows
and the internal staircase are considered acceptable in order to allow the building to be
brought into residential use and give it a future.
The public comment suggesting that the shop should be demolished has been noted but not
considered to be justifiable purely on the ground that it was an “opportunistic“ add-on and
not specifically mentioned in the statutory list description.
Justification.
As previously mentioned, London House has been categorised as a Building at Risk for 13
years and was unoccupied or many years before that. Its continuing deterioration has
caused much concern within the village. This has manifested itself in regular letters/phone
calls to Officer and some Members and, in 2007 a “round robin” letter from some 60+
residents expressing concerns about the condition of the building both in terms of
appearance and structural stability.
Over time Offices have sought to persuade the owner to either repair or sell the building to
no avail and the Borough Council has undertaken essential two lots of repair work to prevent
further deterioration and also damage being caused to Lime House by water penetration and
dry rot in the area of the party wall.
In the past there have been numerous offers to purchase the property, either directly from
the owner or following compulsory purchase but the owner has refused to sell saying that he
will do the work, and compulsory purchase has not be an option that the Borough Council
choose to pursue until recent months. The current applicant has long expressed an interest
in acquiring the property and has continued to do so, even though other expressions of
interest have lessened considerably of late, possibly because of the current economic
climate. The need to extend and convert the stables/gig house to help finance the work the
rear of Lime House is therefore seen as an acceptable form of enabling development in
terms of the consideration of this application.
11/00951/LB Development Control Board
25 July 2011
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