TOWN council planners are not objecting to a plan to demolish Edwina Mountbatten House in Romsey.
The application, by Churchill Retirement Living, is to determine if prior approval is required to carry out the demolition of the former care home on Broadwater Way.
It is linked to plans by Churchill to create 47 retirement apartments on the site.
Romsey Town Council’s planning committee said that it would not submit an objection at its meeting on Thursday, February 16.
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Cllr Mark Cooper told the committee that this decision was due to the building not being a listed property.
He said: “I was going to ask the conservation officer if the home itself could be a listed building. She said there was no particular merit so we cannot object to (the planning application).
“This is at the Southern Area Planning Committee on Tuesday (February 20). I suggest we read the report from the conservation officer. I hope we make a presentation on this.”
According to the planning application, the demolition is being sought to facilitate the redevelopment of the site.
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The application says that the demolition works would start with the removal of asbestos, followed by a “soft strip” where all fixtures and fittings from within the building are taken out by hand and then structural demolition.
In a letter on Test Valley Borough Council's planning website, Sue Mullane, secretary of the Romsey and District Society Planning Committee, said: “We believe that the new 47 apartment home should - despite its Churchill ownership - conform sympathetically architecturally with the planned redevelopment of South of the Town Centre. Albeit the application covers demolition, but we wish to use this opportunity to ask the Borough Council to recognise that there is a need to issue binding guidance achieving design coherence across the SORTC project.”
To view more details about the application online, search 24/00202/DEMS on Test Valley Borough Council's online planning portal.
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