Kentish Express Ashford & District
Row over permission to build near listed homes
A row has erupted after a planning application was approved within a conservation area close to listed buildings.
Charing Parish Council has lodged an official complaint against Ashford Borough Council’s planning department claiming it failed to seek advice from English Heritage and neglected its duty of care to a listed building neighbouring the proposed development site as well as a wall within it.
Parish council chairman Tylden Reed said: “There is a great risk the neighbouring property, a wall and a gazebo, which has been there a couple of hundred years, will be harmed as they want to put metal girders into the ground.”
The planning application and associated listed building consent and conservation area applications relate to plans, approved last year, to demolish a garage and build a two-bedroom house on land to the rear of White House Cottage in High Street, Charing.
The applicant i s waiting for Ashford council to decide whether to grant listed building consent for them to remove a section of wall from the devel- opment site, which is within the Charing Conservation Area.
There was initially some dis-
‘There is no legal requirement to consult English Heritage on an application of this type’
pute over whether the wall was listed and this has fuelled the debate.
Richard Alderton, head of planning and development at ABC, responded to Cllr Reed saying correct procedures had been followed by the larger authority.
He added: “Additionally there is no legal requirement to consult English Heritage on an application of this type.”
Ashford council spokesman Samantha Stone said this week: “Following concerns raised about an application near Charing High Street we have written to the parish council and also met with them last week.
“As a result of that meeting there is a clearer understanding of the issues around this application. The parish council has a further opportunity to comment on the application before a decision is made.”