11 flats are planned for former Bennetts
ONE of a Derbyshire town’s biggest empty shops could be turned into 11 flats, if plans are given the thumbs-up.
Part of the former Bennetts store in Ashbourne’s St John Street would live on as a retail space under the plans, drawn up by Derby-based architects Terry Malpas Associates Ltd.
The designs put before Derbyshire Dales District Council planners include two new shop spaces on the 1,050 sq m building’s ground floor, with the rest of the former department store’s space being converted into apartments.
They would range in size from 36 sq m to 72 sq m and two would have two bedrooms, while the others would be single-bedroomed units.
In a design and access statement compiled on behalf of the applicant Peter Cook, the agents say that a four-storey retail property is too large in the current retail climate.
They go on to explain that the building has been professionally marketed for 18 months but has not attracted any “real interest”.
The statement reads: “The applicant therefore wishes to pursue the possibility of developing the vacant upper floor levels into new residential apartments, while retaining existing retail use on the ground floor, in order to maintain a commercial street presence and with potential new tenants attracting much welcomed footfall back into the town centre.”
The proposed new layout would see the building’s various access points, which were used as fire exits, and its seven staircases, becoming doorways for the new apartments.
The two new shop spaces would use the existing high street doorways, while two doors to the side, facing the elderly persons’ rest room, would become ground floor stairway access points for three of the flats.
A door slightly higher up the paved slope, near to The Gallery, would become the first-floor access point for two more flats, and the remaining six flats would be accessed through a rear door in The Gallery itself.
The design would include a space on the first floor, accessed off The Gallery, for communal indoor bicycle storage. The building has no parking spaces for cars.
Summing up the application, the agent writes: “The existing building, site and local infrastructure can support the proposed residential apartments, in redeveloping this sustainable location, which overall will inject new life into the town centre, bringing a welcomed increase in footfall and subsequent revenue for existing businesses within the immediate area, together with an over-riding objective to help secure the long-term future of this prominent building that has stood empty for 18 months.”
Ashbourne’s Bennetts store closed its doors for the last time in April 2019 after the firm’s administrators failed to find a buyer. Seventeen staff lost their jobs.
Despite hopes of a rescue bid, including a crowdfunding scheme that attracted pledges of more than £20,000, no sustainable new use was found for the building and it has stood empty ever since. Planners are to decide whether to grant permission for the change of use in the coming weeks.