Former pub to become flats and office despite flood fears
COUNCILLOR PLEADS THAT CONVERSION WOULD BE ‘GROSSLY UNSUITABLE’
A FORMER Derby riverside pub is to be turned into an office and four flats despite objections over possible future flooding from Derby City Council experts.
Members of the council’s planning control committee debated the application for the Waterside Inn, Mansfield Road, on Thursday night.
Councillors voted in favour of the project going ahead by seven votes to three, with one abstention.
An impassioned plea to keep the building as a pub was made by Darley councillor Martin Repton, who said: “Making the former pub into residential and an office is grossly unsuitable and the proposal detracts from the fact that the setting is on the edge of the city’s world heritage site.
“There has been a warning from the emergency planner that escaping from the building will not be easy in the event of a flood and we should not play fast and loose with people’s lives.
“This will become a bland industrial building, which is a shame when several people and pub chains have wanted to buy it and keep it as a commercial concern.”
Councillors were told that the building had been marketed and that “little interest” had been shown in it. Benefits of converting the building “outweighed the disadvantages”.
As part of planning conditions, a bat survey will need to be carried out at the building after May to check whether or not the creatures are roosting there.
Warnings that flooding could be a problem for the former pub, known previously as The Bridge Inn, came despite a £95 million flood defence project for the city which has seen flood walls created behind the building.
A flood risk assessment estimates that peak water levels in a one in 100 year flood event plus a 30% climate change scenario would result in peak water levels being higher than the ground floor of the building, making it “susceptible to flooding”.
The assessment also says that “the building would not be able to withstand the pressure of water generated” by such a breach.
The assessment concludes that, during extreme flood events, the building will need to be evacuated following a flood warning.
Residents of the flats would have to evacuate via Mansfield Road, Phoenix Street and onto St Alkmund’s Way, considered to be a risky route onto a busy road.
But the planning officer says that the flood risk could provide opportunities and that conditions of planning permission could include an additional brick skin to ground floor walls “providing a more resilient building”.
The officer concluded that the change of use application would result in extra accommodation, which would provide “a small contribution to the council’s current housing need”.
It is understood that the former pub was originally built as a private residence in the 18th century. It became a pub named the Bridge Inn in the 19th century.
A few years ago, the pub underwent a comprehensive refurbishment, changing the name from the Bridge Inn to the Waterside Inn. It is located in the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage buffer zone.
In 2018, plans were submitted which would have created seven one-bedroom flats and three twobedroom flats. These were withdrawn amid a series of objections and concerns about flooding.
Also at the same planning control meeting, the go-ahead was given for former council offices in St Mary’s Gate to be converted into 52 luxury flats.
Councillor Martin Repton
Listed building consent for Grade II Middleton House to be converted was given last October. The plan also includes the conversion and extension of the former caretaker’s lodge to form a separate dwelling.
The application was voted through unanimously.
There has been a warning that escaping from the building will not be easy in the event of a flood.