Fourth bid for Market Street offices to become nine flats

Watford Borough Council has already refused permission three times to change the building's use from offices to residential at 41 Market Street, Watford.

If approved, the new application, received on February 16, would allow it to become nine homes as a permitted development.

Get a Watford Observer digital subscription for just £1 | Watford Observer

The application is currently light on details, but a previous application refused in October last year would have involved eight studios and one two-bed apartment.

According to a council officer’s report, the borough council does not grant permission for any homes smaller than 37 square metres in size, which is roughly two and a half parking spaces.

• Damning Herts bus stats 'may be wrong' but services have plummeted
• Police bust major drugs gang serving Watford as woman sentenced

Two of the proposed units were apparently smaller than this when excluding the stairway and porch.

Units also fell below the floor to ceiling height regulation for two-storey dwellings. These require three quarters of the interior to be taller than 2.3 metres.

There were also concerns over natural light and a lack of evidence regarding the building’s history.