Yesterday came a late consultation response from the Welsh government regarding the Rhos Street school site redevelopment. The Welsh government is the highways agency for Rhos Street, as this is part of the A494 trunk road.
The Welsh government is *directing* Denbighshire that planning permission be refused, on highways and transport policy grounds. Whatever the rights and wrongs of the development, it cannot now proceed.
This might only be a setback for the applicant. If Medra feels so inclined, it can revise its application, providing sufficient amendments to suit the Welsh government by addressing the points over which WG has concerns.
Also relatively new but this time within the deadline is a full response from the town council. The way theirs is worded suggests that the town council is trying to impress the large number of objectors within the community by making out that the town council knows all about planning law. Hidden within that woven, wordy response are some very good points that could perhaps have been made more simply and more concisely.
Then there is the overwhelming number of responses from members of the public, the likes of which we have not seen before. There are 168. The overwhelming view is that the the building should stay. Just one brave individual, while objecting on transport policy grounds, actually has no objection to the building coming down.
So, if the proposed development has no planning permission, what then for the site? A slow, lingering death and another historic asset left vacant? Or can somehow the old school be incorporated within a revised application? The building itself would be difficult if not impossible to convert to reach housing standards and even then the window levels on the first floor are actually too high and the levels on the ground floor too low. Perhaps the best one can hope for is the retention of the façade—though this seems a second best response to what is such an historic building.