Convent housing plan

11:30am Wednesday 8th February 2012 in

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NEW plans to convert a former convent into housing have been submitted to Malvern Hills District Council.

Developer Crystalight has lodged an application to convert the old Convent of the Holy Name, Ranelagh Road, Malvern Link, into 10 homes.

The application also calls for the removal of a laundry wing attached to one of the buildings and an extension to another.

Planning permission and listed building consent to use the site for housing were granted in 2009 and 2006, although never implemented, and the new application seeks to amend these existing
permissions. The site is unoccupied.

The Community of the Holy Name established the convent in 1879 and 250 nuns lived there in its heyday. However, by the mid 1980s, the community was struggling financially and in 1989, the convent
was sold and the few remaining nuns moved to a smaller facility in Derby.

The building became dilapidated, but in 1994. evangelical organisation the Day of Salvation Ministries bought and restored it.

However, in 2006, it too had to sell it because of financial pressures.

The latest application calls for the conversion of the four main buildings on the site into 10 dwellings: two two-bedroom, one three-bedroom, three fourbedroom, two five-bedroom and two six-bedroom
properties.

A statement is provided by Elaine Milton, Heritage and Planning, on behalf of Crystalight.

It states: “The currently redundant buildings are vulnerable to decay and vandalism. The proposed conversion would help secure their future.”

It also said the proposed demolition of the modern extensions would improve the conservation area.

The new scheme also differs from the previous ones in that it does not call for the building of two new houses on the garden.

However, English Heritage said it has “serious concerns” about some aspects of the scheme, particularly the conversion of the chapel, and says more information should be sought from the applicant.