Bearsted & Thurnham Society
DESTRUCTION AT THE HEART OF THE VILLAGE!
And so they keep coming!
The latest application to threaten the village is 14/505873 for the demolition of Rickwoods, the Computer Shop and Taylors and their replacement with 3 retail units and 7 flats spread over two floors above. The idea is that opening times should be extended to 9pm so it looks as if the applicants hope to let one or more units to a mini market.
Details are on the Maidstone Borough Council website. This application will be discussed at the Bearsted Parish Council planning committee meeting on Thursday 18th December in the Memorial Hall at 7.30 p.m.
The closing date for comments is 31st December – an absurdly short period at the best of times and extraordinarily difficult given the Christmas holiday.
Details of how to comment are as follows:
By email -
By MBC’s website Follow link to ‘Planning’ then ‘Planning application search’ enter 14/505873 then ‘Make comments’.
If you have any difficulty submitting comments via this method, please contact MBC to seek help.
By post – Andrew Jolly, Mid Kent Planning Support, Maidstone House, King Street, Maidstone ME15 6JQ
Your name, address and postcode must be included whichever method you choose for your comments to be validated.
Do copy us into your response to help us gauge opinion.
Councillor Val Springett is trying her best to get the period extended, but it is clearly important that we do all we can to register our objections. Do please make your objections known in writing.
The Society is holding a protest meeting outside the shops at 12 noon on Wednesday17 December. Sorry for the short notice but this is to enable the Downs Mail to cover the event and to include pictures and a story in the next edition which is about to go to press. We may also run a similar event on Saturday morning but will send details as soon as possible.
In the meantime, following discussions with Mr Crouch and a representative from the computer shop this morning, we thought the following information might be helpful.
The issues
The leases
The leases are up on all three shops within four months of each other in 2015. So this provides an opportunity for the owners (Evenden Estates Ltd, Princes Square, Hove, East Sussex. BN3 4GE) to redevelop the site and to maximise the return on the space available.
Impact on the existing businesses
But for the businesses involved this means the end of the road if planning permission is granted. For the village it would mark the loss of three much valued businesses that provide a unique service and draw their customers from many miles around – especially Rickwoods and the computer shop.
For Rickwoods the livelihoods of 35 families are at stake. Because the Bearsted shop manufactures the pies, quiches and other products that his other two shops in Staplehurst and Wadhurst also retail, the business will have to be restructured because the other sites cannot accommodate the facilities that will be lost at Bearsted. We understand from Mr Crouch that, such is his faith in his customers from far and wide, he has invested £200K in his Bearsted business.
Opening hours
The proposal seeks opening hours of 8am to 9pm for six days a week and “normal retail hours” (we assume this means 10 until 4) on Sundays and Bank Holidays – three to four hours longer than the current arrangements. At present customers for the White Horse, opposite, use parking spaces in front of the shops from 6pm onwards. If the proposal went ahead this would no longer be possible with a knock on effect on the restaurant and pub’s business.
Access
The road to the side of Rickwoods is to be widened slightly to provide better access to the parking area behind. Part of this area is designated as a “service yard” for two of the three units. The unit that would stand on what is now Taylors would have no rear access.
Even with a widened access road the ability of large articulated lorries to service the retail outlets would be compromised by the very narrow turning circle available to the rear access of the proposed properties.
Car parking
The plans envisage 7 car parking spaces and a cycle rack to serve the flats. This works out at one parking place per flat; woefully insufficient to meet modern demand from the owners, let alone accommodate visitors.
No parking spaces are shown for workers at the proposed retail outlets.
Impact on the Conservation Area
The Design and Access Statement prepared on behalf of Evenden Estates describes the building as follows:
“The building which currently occupies the site is not listed, but as identified by the Planner at the pre-application stage, it has some features of architectural merit, particularly the frontage canopy across the entrance to the shops.
The current single-story building unfortunately suffered significant fire damage many years ago, resulting in the loss of the upper floors. Consequently the architectural proportions of the building are now compromised.”
It is true the building is not listed and has been damaged by fire but the statement by Evenden Estates greatly under plays the significance of the building. There is far more to it than their description implies.
First, it lies in the Bearsted Green Conservation Area. The report on this and the Holy Cross Conservation Area compiled by the Maidstone Borough Council in 2010 grades building in four categories:
Essential
Positive
Neutral
Negative.
Essential covers buildings of high architectural or historic interest or townscape function which must be retained.
Positive is the designation given to buildings/sites “which contribute positively to the character and interest of the conservation area and whose retention should be encouraged wherever possible”.
The parade of shops is designated as positive.
The shops were rebuilt in 1902 following a fire that gutted the original premises built in 1882 – though some elements of the original structure survived.
It is constructed of red brick with a brick parapet, which includes some attractive recessed brick panels bounded by moulded bricks.The full length canopy is supported by cast iron pillars and is covered in lead sheeting. As one looks under the canopy one can see that where it joins the building the joint is defined by brick moulded in a tooth-like pattern. The shop windows are lined by decorative, ceramic brick pilasters. The original inset timber doors have large glazed upper panels and glazed fanlights above. Adjacent to the shops is the cast iron telephone box which is designated as essential to the conservation area.
The Green lies at the centre of this conservation area and has no less than 24 listed buildings around it or in its immediate proximity. Buildings within the conservation area are generally small in scale and nothing is taller than two storeys. Only the oast houses on the far side of the green provide an example of vertical accent.
The MBC Conservation report also draws attention to the importance of small features to the character of a conservation area. The telephone kiosk is one example and the original mosaic flooring at the entrance to Taylors and the computer shop is another.
The report also draws attention to the importance of lighting to a conservation area and points out that after dark lighting is not of high intensity which helps to reinforce the rural setting of the conservation area. The intention to extend opening hours will obviously have an adverse impact on this.
The application indicates that a new development will seek to incorporate the existing canopy, but there is no firm undertaking to do so and, of course all the other distinctive features will be destroyed to make way for a building of little architectural merit and of a bulk greater than any other in this part of the village
In the Society’s view the impact of the proposals on the conservation area and the wider village is wholly adverse and we will be pressing for the planning application to be rejected.
1