'Eyesore' house seen off Potteries Way to remain blot on the landscape
Fresh plans to convert an 'eyesore' Stoke-on-Trent house regularly targeted by vandals and trespassers into apartments have been refused again. A proposal to turn the derelict Gilman Street end-terrace, in Hanley, into eight self-contained apartments was knocked back last year.
A new planning application - this time for six flats - was later lodged. But Stoke-on-Trent City Council case officer Joanne Dale states that 'similar issues are raised' in both proposals.
The property can be seen off the Potteries Way ring-road.
The planning officer's damning report refers to the fact that the proposed layout 'would adversely affect the residential amenity of future occupants and the resultant living standards would not be acceptable or suitable'. It adds: "The development, as proposed, raises a number of amenity issues which would lead to a substandard accommodation impacting on the living conditions of future occupants.
"It is noted that the applicant or agent have not engaged in pre-application advice, an important consideration. Nor have they taken onboard all of the information provided within the detailed officer report for the previous scheme determined, elements of which are mirrored in this revised scheme.
"Information relating to the development is limited and it is therefore considered that the application is not of a sufficient standard to enable the case officer and others involved in the process to fully assess what is proposed. The application does not provide a clear and unequivocal submission upon which the application can be determined fully and the assessment is therefore limited to the information available to officers."