Flats plan for church is rejected
RESIDENTS WOULD BE ‘CRAMMED IN’
Reporter PLANS to convert part of an “important” Tyneside church into flats have been rejected by councillors.
Planning committee members voted on Wednesday night to reject an application for 12 new apartments within Durham Road Baptist Church in central Gateshead, defying the advice of council officers.
Councillors said they feared residents would be ‘crammed’ into the apartments, which would not have met national standards for residential space.
Coun Mick Henry said: “Cramming people into a building just to retain it is not something we should be doing.”
He added: “This council is working towards improving the standards that it accepts and this committee feels that there is not adequate space in this proposal in accordance with the national standards.”
Coun Lynne Caffrey said: “I am concerned about the idea of getting 12 apartments into it - I don’t think it is that big a space.
“We are going to be allowing something that will fall short of national standards in terms of space for rooms, just so someone can cram 12 apartments into this space.”
As well as the 12 apartments, the application from B&R Developments would have included a refurbished church hall for worship and community use.
The original church hall dates from 1877, and a larger sanctuary area was built a year later to accommodate a growing congregation.
However, the sanctuary - which was the area earmarked for the housing - has been unused for around 15 years and the committee was told that it has begun to show signs of deterioration.
Council officers had recommended that the plans were approved, saying “residential use will bring the building back into use and stop the process of deterioration whilst minimising the impacts upon the building’s fabric”.
B&R Developments, an organisation run by Baptist Christians who specialise in helping churches with unsustainable buildings, said in its planning application that it would provide “new and improved church and community facilities and a choice of homes in a sustainable location”.
Councillors voted by a margin to 10 to six to refuse the plans, but a separate application to approve the principle of redeveloping the grade-II listed church building was granted.