PLANS to demolish a St Helier property and build five new homes have been approved.
The proposals include knocking down Hope Cottage and its associated outbuildings and garage, which are located on land off Bellozanne Valley, and constructing three two-bedroom maisonettes and two two-bed flats.
The flats will include an en-suite bathroom, laundry room, open-plan living and kitchen/dining space, plus a terrace.
Parking spaces will be constructed at street level with the properties built on higher land.
According to a design statement submitted to the government’s Planning website by Origin Architecture Studio on behalf of the applicant, the current buildings in place at the site are ‘not fit for purpose, do not meet any modern standards of construction and are beyond economical and sustainable repair or refurbishment’.
‘The existing buildings on site are considerably dated and have evolved over a significant number of years by simply adding on extensions in an ad-hoc manner,’ the statement says.
‘There is no consistent architectural language to the existing buildings and no key connector visually to the adjacent built context, which remains largely architecturally and stylistically diverse.
The statement adds: ‘The existing buildings are constructed from a collection of differing materials including brickwork, split block, [and] pebble dash-painted render with varying pitches of roof in traditional and artificial slate.
‘Some of these roofing materials are now known to contain asbestos and will require to be removed appropriately.
‘The property is damp inside, has no radon membrane, no insulation, very poor performing windows and structural defects.’
According to the statement, the proposed construction has been purposely designed to ‘mitigate any considered harm to neighbouring amenities’.
‘This is a really interesting site that can deliver a suitable and appropriate density of new residential development in the built-up area, meeting an Island need without creating considered impact to the site’s location, vicinity or surrounding context,’ it says.
