A vehicle repair shop in Bath could be redeveloped to provide nearly 50 new homes.
Plans for the Dick Lovett site | Image © Vistry Partnerships Ltd
Dick Lovett is moving to state-of-the-art facilities in Melksham, leaving its Cheltenham Street site redundant.
New proposals from housing developer Vistry Partnerships Ltd would replace the utilitarian single-storey buildings with a residential development standing up to five storeys high.
As well as 29 one- and two-bed apartments and 18 three-bedroom townhouses there would be around 50 sqm of office space, big enough to employ five people.
The proposals exceed Bath and North East Somerset Council’s minimum requirement for affordable homes – they would account for 19 of the 47 properties, a rate of 40 per cent against the policy of at least 30 per cent.
The Dick Lovett bodyshop in Cheltenham Street | Photo © Google 2020
The site is currently occupied, employing 12 people. It has not been marketed due to the pandemic and its continued impact on the economy, the plans say, but the buildings would be of “little appeal to an alternative occupier” as they have been adapted for the current use.
The application claims that the industrial space set to be lost is highly unlikely to be allowed if it was proposed today in an “otherwise overwhelmingly close-grained residential area”.
The development would have parking for 26 cars and 104 bikes.
B&NES Council will decide the fate of the application.
Redevelop proposals have also been submitted for Dick Lovett’s Mini dealership half a mile away in Lower Bristol Road.
Plans for 290 student flats in two five-storey blocks were rejected in August after the designs were deemed “unworthy” of Bath.
Stephen Sumner, Local Democracy Reporter
