'I think we can add up': Chorley Council says no to apartment block which 'claimed to be three storeys, but was actually four'

The proposed development - on the former site of a Mormon Church meeting room on Water Street - was described in a report to Chorley Council’s planning committee as a three-storey scheme. However, members and a local resident said that the design - which includes two dormer-style flats in the roof space - actually constituted four storeys.

Cllr Alistair Morwood - who is also the authority’s cabinet member for planning, as well as sitting on the committee - said: “If you look at the [application] diagram, it says ground floor, first floor, second floor, third floor - one, two, three, four. I think we can all add up - it’s four storeys high.”

It was the height of the building that dissuaded a majority of members from supporting the recommendation of the council’s own planning officers to approve the proposal.

Case officer Mike Halsall acknowledged that his judgement had been “finely balanced”, because of concerns raised by a heritage adviser that the development would harm the appearance of the St. Laurence’s Conservation Area in which it would sit - albeit only to a level which was “less than substantial”. He told the meeting that “the wider public benefits of the proposal” for "much needed" two-bedroomed flats were considered to outweigh any such damage.

Mr. Halsall added that the site had become overgrown with vegetation since the demolition of the church building in the 2000s. However, the committee was largely unconvinced by any arguments in favour of the plans.

Nearby resident Natalie Middleton also said that the block would be “overbearing” and could “gravely” affect the mental health of people living in surrounding properties because of the lack of light that would enter their homes after the apartments were built.

Committee member Cllr Sarah Ainsworth said that it would have a “detrimental” impact on the area.

One of her colleagues, Cllr Chris Snow, did speak out in support of the blueprint, saying that there were buildings of similar size very close to the proposed site - including the former Inland Revenue offices and the Swan With Two Necks pub.

He said that the positioning of the block towards the bottom of a valley meant that it would be “less prominent” than it otherwise would have been and described the site as “exactly the right sort of location” for a development to help meet Chorley’s housing needs.

However, in proposing refusal of the plans, Cllr Morwood said that while he agreed it was “the perfect spot for housing”, that did not mean the council should “just allow anything”, describing the proposed building as a “monolith” that those living opposite would have to stare at.

The application – by Gradus Homes Ltd. – was rejected by ten votes to two, with one abstention.

Permission had previously been granted for eight dwellings on the plot back in January 2020, but that approval has since lapsed.