THE decaying Grade II-listed Danbury Palace will be restored and converted into 45 luxury homes after a three-and-half year planning tussle.
Wilson Holdings was given the go-ahead by Chelmsford City Council to revive Danbury Palace, which dates back to the 1500s, this month.
Yet the developer’s managing director Paul Wilson said his team were close to giving up after submitting 11 planning applications and being told to fork out more than £500,000 in Section 106 agreements, cash grants to local councils to improve infrastructure, to get the green light.
Mr Wilson, 54, who blames bureaucracy for the struggle but has praised the planning officers, said: “Although it has been a long and frustrating road, we are of course very happy to finally receive the approval for this scheme and more importantly to commence the much-needed and urgent works to the listed buildings to ensure they, as well as the Grade II-listed parkland settings, are safeguarded for years to come.”
In exchange for the rights to build on site, the developers have been forced to pay £425,000 towards affordable housing in the Chelmsford district, £71,000 towards education and £28,295 to “strategic open space” projects.
They must pay another £2,106 so council officers can check they are complying with the agreements.
During the Second World War, when the house was owned by the Wigans family, it was used as a maternity hospital. It was sold to the county council in 1946.
Some 400 of about 2,000 babies thought to have been born at the site now make up the Danbury Palace Babies’ Society.
“This is a great cause for celebration if the development goes ahead,” said society coordinator Marie Polley, 86, whose sisters worked in the hospital.
“It’s now one building that won’t go to ruin. Even if it’s apartments that doesn’t matter. Providing it is kept as the house, the babies will be very pleased.”
The house, which developers will start work on in the next two months and is due for completion in July 2015, has been empty since 2004. The finished project, which the developers must build before May 2017, will range in one-bed flats to four-bed houses. The 1970s coach house wing and conference centre will be demolished.
Marie’s son Simon, a building surveyor, said: “The babies think it’s terrific. We’ve been waiting for a long time just to get the place used and not into a state of dilapidation.”
Chelmsford City Council said the developers initially refused to pay the £425,000 for affordable housing, as well as refusing to provide cheap homes at Danbury Palace, before an independent board had to step in.
A spokesman said: “The acceptance of this contribution at the level agreed represents a concession on the part of the council, justified on the basis of the independent viability assessment and the key objective to safeguard the future of the listed building.”