Development of the Court Buildings, Mountfield, Rax Lane

Introduction

The photograph on this page of Development of the Court Buildings, Mountfield, Rax Lane by John Stephen as part of the Geograph project.

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Development of the Court Buildings, Mountfield, Rax Lane

Image: © John Stephen Taken: 27 Mar 2017

The 1960s vintage Court Buildings in the grounds of Mountfield House have been demolished and are being redeveloped to provide 26 sheltered retirement apartments for the elderly with communal facilities including owner's lounge, guest suite and buggy store. It is being called Alfred Lodge, although who Alfred was or what he had to do with the town is unclear. Planning permission was refused in Aug 2015 but was overturned on appeal so construction has gone ahead, presumably the developers have done what they wanted anyway. The proposed building was refused permission on the grounds that: i) By reason of its height, design and size, compared to surrounding buildings and structures. ii). The development would result in the loss of trees, in particular one oak tree and could prejudice the future long term health and vitality of a number of other trees on the site including a mature horse chestnut, which would adversely affect the character and appearance of the Conservation Area. iii). The development by reason of its height and proposed fenestration on the northern elevation would result in a loss of privacy to the occupiers of 5 Garden Close and The Garden House in their rear amenity spaces. The development by reason of the poor design and internal layout results in poor living conditions for future occupiers with insufficient daylight in living rooms of two of the flats on the lower ground floor. iv) There is currently no mechanism in place through a suitably worded legal agreement to secure the provision of the financial contribution for off site for the required affordable housing. I assume they must have sorted these difficulties out as Churchill Retirement have them on the market for from £232K and £334K for one and two bedroom apartments respectively; then there is the service charge. Money rules OK?

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Image Location

coordinates on a map icon
Latitude
50.735046
Longitude
-2.758059