Cafe to become family home
Building is in the conservation area
A Top of the Town cafe next to the historic Cowane’s House is to be turned into a family home.
Stirling Council planners have approved an application from Mr and Mrs C Macnair to convert Taigh A Ghobba at The Smithy, 73 St Mary’s Wynd.
The building currently has permission for cafe/ restaurant and retail use, however planners say it is outwith a zone which would generally seek to keep buildings which were a source of employment.
In their decision, the planners said: “The site is located within a Conservation Area and fronts directly onto the public road and is on the periphery of a local authority built housing estate.
“The building at 73 St Mary’s Wynd is not a listed building.
“On the north side of the building is King Stables Lane which leads up to Stirling Castle and immediately beyond this at 81 St Mary’s Wynd is former school building which was converted to homeless accommodation. On the south side is a ruin known as Cowane’s House. Within the site to the rear is a spacious garden.
“The existing building is outwith the employment safeguarding area as defined in the Adopted Stirling Local Development Plan and so there is no planning policy constraint in relation to the loss of employment property.”
The planners said the building would have originally been constructed and used as a house and the site layout was suitable for residential use.
While it did not have offroad parking and the area itself had very limited offroad parking, the planners said residential use of the building would generate less parking need than cafe and retail use, so “on-street residential parking demand for the proposed house parking is not a concern”.
“There are no external alterations proposed to the building,” they added. “The proposed residential use is compatible with the adjacent residential area and homeless accommodation. The proposal would therefore preserve the character and appearance of the Conservation Area. A change in use of the building to residential with no external alterations would not have any impact on the setting of the adjacent ruinous building, Cowane’s House as a category A grade listed building.”