Cllr Valerie Scott writes:-
On 1 November 2019 residents who lived close to the Royal Oak, Bigbury were sent a notice by Devon Building Control stating that the property was to be demolished. As expected this did raise a few alarm bells with the notice suggesting that the whole of the building was to be demolished.
Valerie Scott telephoned Devon Building Control on 14 November to find out whether the notice was correct and was advised that they had been notified of the proposed demolition by the building contractors, Bay Construction. She then telephoned Bay Construction and was advised by them that only partial demolition was being proposed. in accordance with the planning permission for the change of use of the premises to provide three dwellings Application Ref; 2873/18/FUL. Valerie Scott advised them by email the same day that they should send a new notification to Devon Building Control to advise them of the fact that this was part demolition only and that they should ask Devon Building Control to send out a new notice, as this was causing a lot of anguish by neighbours and also in the local community.
Valerie Scott has been advised that a corrected notice will be issued in due course but at the time of writing this had not been received. Valerie would however like to reassure the local community that it is not intended to demolish the whole of the Royal Oak and she will keep pressing the contractors to send out a new notification to Devon Building Control so that a revised notice is sent out to the local residents.
South Hams District Council’s Planning and Conservation officers are also aware of the error and are themseves taking action to ensure that only demolition of the approved parts of the building ie at the rear and set back section on the southern side, will take place.
The partial demolition is due to take place in the first two weeks of December 2019.
21 November 2019
Tom Pratt, Director, Bay Construction responds:-
Dear Ms Scott,
i have had the opportunity to review the application process and considered the chain of events and notices and write to you to assure you that you need not be concerned over the proposed demolitions we are planning to undertake at the Royal oak on the 2nd December this year. We are not demolishing the complete building, we are however taking down sections of the existing building in line with the approved plans and the ancillary outbuildings to the rear of the property.
We have submitted a full set of plans that are available for review on the planning portal and have been granted planning permission under reference 2873/18/FUL. If you would like to see details of the full proposals for this scheme you will find a full set of plans available to review through south hams planning portal under this reference.
As part of the approval 2873/18/FUL we were required to submit a pre-construction phase plan identifying how the works were to be carried out and to include consideration of the impact of the project of the various facets of working in close proximity to our neighbours and the narrow main road leading to Bigbury. You will be able to find full details of our approved submission on the planning portal under reference 2448/19/ARC.
I have considered the nature of the application made and notice issued and do not consider that there is any benefit in issuing a further notice. I am however happy to answer any specific concerns you may have over the project if your would like to contact me directly. My direct contact being 07825138119 or through the office on 01803411343.
i have spoken with Southhams planning officer and the building control officer and can conclude that all parties consider the notices served adequate.
To re-assure you, we have held on site meetings with our immediate neighbours and written to both landlords and tenants of the 6 properties closest to us ( within 50m of our site).
I understand through your discussions with Emma Hannaford from our office, that you had specific concerns over impact on works to the road elevation and possible hinderance of traffic movements. Please be assured that at this time there are no works to the road side elevation proposed. We will be erecting scaffolding later in the construction process to the road elevation and the full details and impact on any traffic movements will be carefully considered with highways when we have had confirmation from all the relevant parties involved. (we do not envisage the scaffold requiring a road closure at any time of the project)
As was demonstrated throughout the 12 month period we took building the 4 new build properties to the rear of the Royal Oak, we will continue to respect our neighbours and the users of the main road into Bigbury and I would hope that the general populous of the village consider we have demonstrated an ability to do so to date. As an open statement to the Parish please feel free to pass on my direct contact details at the next parish meeting and I would invite any resident to feel free to contact me directly on matters pertaining to this development.
I trust this e-mali allays any concerns you may have.
Kind Regards
Tom Pratt
On Behalf of ATA Estates (Bigbury) LLP
Director – Bay Construction Ltd.
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