Five homes earmarked for pub closed by lockdown
AFORMER pub and its car park and garden could be transformed into five new homes under recently submitted plans.
The Crown, situated at 96 Church Street in Bollington, had to close in March as lockdown hit and it shut its doors to customers for good on June 29 this year. It has been closed and vacant ever since.
But now developers have submitted plans to Cheshire East Council which could see the pub converted into two new 3-bedroom homes and an outbuilding on its site partially demolished to make way for an additional three homes and parking spaces.
Application documents from developer Alderley GB 1 say the conversion of the pub building itself would bring the vacant property back into use.
They added that developers consider it ‘extremely challenging’ for the building to be reopened as a public house, and especially for it to survive as a viable business in light of current social distancing requirements.
Developers say the conversion of the pub building ‘represents a sustainable form of development, will result in significant investment in this building, and will ensure the long term preservation of the heritage asset’.
Both homes to be constructed within the former pub would have gardens, and both contain three bedrooms including a master en-suite, an open plan kitchen and dining space, and separate utility rooms over two storeys.
What remains of the site’s existing outbuilding is to be converted into a summer house belonging to one of the two homes to be created from the former pub.
A bat survey determined there were no bats nesting in the pub roof.
Application documents say the external appearance of the pub building itself would ‘generally be retained in its existing form’ with ‘only very limited changes’ to be made, which include repair to the pub’s external stone facings, replacement of the existing roof tiles with slate, and the incorporation of bi-fold doors at the rear of the ground floors to provide garden access.
In addition, developer Gustav Bonnier Holdings has submitted plans for three new homes to be constructed in the current pub car park and garden; two as semi-detached properties and one as a fully detached home.
Calderpeel Architects, who are behind the designs for the new builds, say each of the three homes would also have three bedrooms, their own gardens and would be suitable to house five people each.
It says the new properties have been designed ‘to provide a cohesive architectural character which will enhance the aesthetic of the area’.
The pub and its site are situated within the Bollington Conservation Area, but an assessment by the Conservation Project Office found the development would have a ‘neutral’ impact on the area as the main building would remain consistent with the ‘character and appearance’ of the conservation area, and the new buildings would fit into the space between the pub and adjacent existing homes on Ingersley Crescent. The main entrance to the first unit to be developed within the pub would be on Church Street, while the entrance to the second, as well as access to the three new properties, would be from the adjacent Ingersley Vale.
Comments on both applications can be made until Wednesday August 26 on Cheshire East Council’s planning website by going to www.cheshireeast.gov.uk/planning/ view_a_planning_application/ view_ a_ planning_ application.aspx and searching reference number 20/3175M for the conversion of the pub into two new homes and the partial outbuilding demolition, or 20/3162M for the proposed erection of the three new homes.