Plan to demolish building for 29 Lower High Street flats

After a proposal for 36 homes in a project near the road’s Tesco Extra supermarket was rejected in February, the designs have been revised “principally” by reducing the scale.

The latest idea, which appeared on the Watford Borough Council planning portal this week, is for a development with five ground floor flats and six on each of four floors above.

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The proposed building is one floor smaller than the previous submission and its footprint has been reduced.

Speaking at a planning meeting for the previous 36-home plan, a spokesperson on behalf of the applicant said the existing vacant building “offers little in the way of public benefit to the street”.

He added: “We did look at converting the existing building but we’re keen to bring a full application forward to control the quality and standard of the design.”

The vacant office building seen from Lower High Street. (Image: Google Street View)

That application was refused on grounds including its failure to “successfully transition with or relate to the surrounding local context”, according to the decision report.

It added that residents of the proposed homes would suffer from poor internal daylight levels, and that “by virtue of its scale and massing”, it would overshadow a neighbouring residential building at Crosfield Court.

Addressing lighting concerns, the new plan has apparently made “as many of the units as possible” have windows facing more than one direction, provided “generous” windows, and reorientated apartments.

Of the 29 flats, 15 would be one-bedroom, eight would be two-bedroom, and six would be three-bedroom.

CGI View 02 - from the design and access statement. Showing the view from Local Board Road (Image: Watford Borough Council planning portal, Benchmark Architects, Nazmo Ltd)

Jessa House, the building marked for demolition, has been empty since 2012 after previously being in office use.

When the previous plan was proposed, council staff agreed with the applicant that an assessment demonstrated it could not viably include affordable units.

According to the applicant the block will bring “much-needed new homes within this part of Watford” and “ensure the delivery of high-quality new homes”, “whist not impacting upon the surrounding properties in an adverse manner”.

Besides a single disabled parking space and two regular parking spaces, the proposal is “car-free”.