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| St Andrew's Church Hall |
Letter sent to local papers & Private Eye
Sir,
We
are told by the law of the land that a Conservation Area is declared
in order to preserve the character and appearance of an area.
Your readers will be concerned to note that the current planning
applications to Rugby Borough Council shown above, for a new Caldecott
Square that would back onto our town parish church St Andrews,would
achieve just the opposite!
The applicants state that the design has been carefully chosen to
fit in, but St Andrews Church House, a handsome (if unexceptional ) 1934
three storey communal building, would be demolished and replaced by a
five storey apartment block , of a modernist cuboid design with flat
roofs and balconies, much better suited to the Costa Blanca! ( Blocks A
and B).
The applicants argue that is
all right because its appearance would be blocked by commercial
buildings (the shops) , yet anyone can see that those are only three
storeys high. It would also include nil social rented housing so no help
for the Housing Waiting List.
Herbert Gray College in Little
Elbrow Street, is a rather fine Georgian Listed Building of pre-1849
with an 18th century core, which stands to be disfigured by huge
extensions of modernist cuboid glass plate walls with grey cladding
panels, which could hardly be less sympathetic to the Georgian /late-
Victorian buildings surrounding it.
It is understood that our
Conservative-run Borough Council has already approved an earlier
application here for a modernist hotel, so the planners feel pushed into
accepting this new application as the existing one is even worse ;
well, this is hardly an effective policy for preserving a Conservation
Area and leads to the tail wagging the dog.
Bats roosting at Herbert Gray College also would not be protected , as the bat survey done is only half complete.
Readers
still have a week to raise objections at the Town Hall against this
architectural vandalism of our Conservation Area, and the case officer
is Mr Holt.
Former users of the Church
House may also wish to apply for it to get Community Asset Status which
would at least freeze its demolition to see if it can be found a viable
use. Anyone wishing to pursue this is invited to contact Rugby Green
Party on our website as we have had recent success in this procedure
with the Imperial Hotel in Oxford Street.
At this rate we are going to lose all of Rugby's historical areas bar the School !
Thank you,
Peter Reynolds, Chair - Rugby Green Party
