Published at 08:58, Saturday, 12 November 2011
A MULTI-MILLION pound plan to restore the derelict Kirklinton Hall, near Longtown, can go ahead.
The three-storey Grade II-listed building is a shell with crumbling walls and no roof.
ERB Properties based near St Austell in Cornwall, aims to convert the hall, stable block and coach house into 13 homes and add a stand-alone wing with five properties and a courtyard garage block with four residences above.
Carlisle City Council’s planning officers had recommended that planning permission be refused.
But councillors yesterday overruled them.
Longtown councillor Ray Bloxham said: “If we refuse this it will be a missed opportunity. The building, even in its awful state at the moment, has a lot of architectural merit.
“That should be brought out and developed.”
And Paul Nedved, who represents Stanwix Urban, said: “If we don’t take this opportunity, years down the line we will be kicking ourselves when we’re looking at a pile of rubble.”
Developments of this size are not normally allowed in open countryside but ERB argued that Kirklinton Hall was a special case as the project would bring a dilapidated listed building back into use. However, planning officers commissioned an independent report that questioned the project’s viability.
And they said that, while English Heritage supported reconstruction of the hall and coach house, it opposed the new wing and garage block.
The council received five objections to the planning application.
Margaret Paish, who lives nearby, told councillors: “The main concern is safety. There’s a blind corner on the road and no verge. It’s highly dangerous.
“This is a huge development. It’s not in keeping with the area and Kirklinton Hall is lovely as it is.”
Eric Telford, agent for ERB, denied that the scheme was unviable and said the hall’s last use as a nightclub generated more traffic than the current proposal would.
He added: “The whole aim of this application is to ensure the hall is restored.
“English Heritage has no fundamental objection.
“If this application is refused, we won’t be coming back with a reduced scheme because a reduced scheme would not be viable. This is the last chance.”
Planning permission will be confirmed when ERB signs a binding agreement to restore the hall, stable block and coach house before starting on the new wing and garage block.
The hall dates from 1661.
It was requisitioned by the RAF during World War Two and briefly became home to evacuees from a school in Lancashire.
It was used as housing after the war then converted into a hotel, nightclub and casino before changes to gambling laws forced its closure. The building was already deteriorating when it was listed in 1974.
JWhittle@cngroup.co.uk
Published by http://www.newsandstar.co.uk
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