Planners

Foundation and ground floor plan

I noticed the demise of Alio's at reference 1, and yesterday I got around to taking a look at Epsom council's excellent planning application portal at reference 2.

The documents there, one of which is illustrated left, suggested to my untutored eye that what was essentially a residential development was retaining a retail unit in the front part of what used to be the delicatessen. Which, given the location struck me as silly.

So this morning I call in at the Zestan offices down Blenheim Road to get the full story, where I am taken in charge by a pleasant and helpful young lady who provides said story - and would no doubt have provided coffee had I shown any interest in that sort of thing.

It seems that the rule says that the shop has to be empty for two years before the council will consider an application for change of use. Which means that Zestan have to retain a shop in this small redevelopment, scratch around for a few years, maybe losing a fair bit of rental income along the way, then try again. Against a background of the retail industry generally struggling against a tidal wave of change, it seems perverse to waste resources on preserving this outlier, on not taking this opportunity to tidy it away. It is not as if there are not other convenience stores a few hundred yards away, in the various parades north, east, south and west.

The sort of thing which brings town planning and town planners into disrepute.

PS: this afternoon saw the first sit out in the sun, on what was once the site of our garden shed. Regular sun trap on a good day, as it was today.

Reference 1: http://psmv3.blogspot.co.uk/2018/03/sicilian-convenience.html.

Reference 2: http://eplanning.epsom-ewell.gov.uk/online-applications/.