Plans for 50 Mapperley homes thrown out by City Council

Housebuilder Gleeson’s plans to build 50 homes in Mapperley in Nottingham have been rejected by Nottingham City Council.

Gleeson wanted to build the houses at Ransom Drive in Mapperley on the site of the former Springfield Centre – a day care facility for people with learning disabilities.

Gleeson’s proposal included a mixture of 17 two-bedroom houses, 29 three-bedroom houses and 4 four-bedroom houses. The properties were to be a mixture of semi-detached and detached.

The firm said the development would be an “opportunity to bring forward low cost market housing, which will add to choice for local residents.”

A spokesperson for Gleeson Homes said: “We’re disappointed at the refusal of planning permission and we are currently preparing our appeal which we will win. It is disappointing that we will be unable to start building low cost homes for local people until we win the appeal, and it is doubly disappointing that the rate payers of Nottingham will inevitably and unnecessarily be paying our costs.”

Nottingham City Council’s planning department said the the schemes lacked “visual interest”. In turning down the planning application, it said: “The site layout of the proposed development fails to provide sufficient features, including front boundary walls or railings, street trees, or other individual features that would help to create well defined streets and spaces and would contribute to the visual interest of the development.

“The highway layout of the proposed development, including individual driveway accesses, would also dominate the street scene to the detriment of the potential quality and character of the development and wider area.

“Accordingly it is considered that the proposed development would fail to create a sense of place, despite benefitting from surrounding significant landscape qualities and adjacency to the Hine Hall (Coppice Hospital) Conservation Area.”

The news comes just a week after Gleeson announced that it has opened a Nottingham office. Gleeson has taken more than 3,200 sq ft of office space at Aspect Court in Bulwell in a deal brokered by property consultancy Innes England.