Churchill Retirement Living loses battle for retirement flats at Lymington police station site

A DEVELOPER has lost its battle for a widely opposed plan to replace Lymington's former police station with 32 retirement flats.

The appeal by Churchill Retirement Living against New Forest District Council’s refusal to allow the empty building in Southampton Road to be demolished and built over was dismissed by a planning inspector.

More than 1,400 people signed a petition against the proposal, with opposition also voiced by Lymington and Pennington Town Council and the Lymington Society.

As reported in the A&T, NFDC's planning committee rejected it in December last year, arguing Lymington needed more affordable homes for young people and first-time buyers.

Others reasons included inadequate parking and turning space for emergency vehicles, and a lack of outside amenity space for the facility’s users.

Now a planning inspector has sided with the council and blocked the scheme.

This was despite disagreeing with objections that it would have been an "overprovision" of older people's housing, damaged the nearby conservation area, come with insufficient parking, and added undue pressure to local services.

Instead, he ruled that Churchill had not demonstrated it was going to do enough to mitigate against pollution from the homes entering the Solent in the form of nitrates in wastewater, which harm the environment.

Nitrates can result in dense mats of green algae and other effects on marine ecology.

Churchill’s plan would have seen the L-shaped building dating back to circa 1952 replaced with a block of 21 one-bed and 11 two-bed apartments.

It also included communal facilities, access, 12 parking spaces and landscaping.