A local motor spares company are seeking permission to demolish a disused building to provide more parking space near their Sutton premises. Auto Spares (Sutton) Ltd, based in Kirkby in Ashfield, want to replace the dilapidated building with “security fencing and extension of existing secure parking facility for company vehicles” at its Sutton Auto Factors store in New Cross Street, Sutton in Ashfield.
In an application to district planners, the company’s Alan Wells says that the building at 16 Downing Street, a brick-built shop with accommodation, “has reached its end of life” and “has been unoccupied for 34 years.”
But the county’s highways authority has expressed concern about the lack of details included in the application about how the demolition would be carried out.
“The applicant should provide a construction method statement which should include provision for the parking of vehicles of site operatives and visitors, including measures to ensure the segregation of construction vehicles and pedestrians on-site”, Nottinghamshire County Council’s Darius Walker said.
He said that the method statement should show construction traffic routing, a location for loading, unloading and storage of plant and materials, the erection and maintenance of security hoarding, measures to prevent the deposit of debris onto the highway, including wheel washing facilities, measures to control noise, vibration and the emission of dust and dirt during construction and the scheme for recycling and disposing of waste resulting from demolition and construction works.
“The highway authority recommends that the application should not be determined until the applicant has addressed the above issues”, Walker said. “The highway authority will comment again following receipt of further information.”
The highways authority also expresses concern about the “adverse impact on highway safety” caused by the “intensification of use of the existing site access”. The authority “recommends that the applicant should come forward with proposals which illustrate the restoration proposals” including “measures to improve the footway widths around the application site frontages and for the improvement of visibility from New Cross Street to the north-west along Downing Street”.
The contaminated land officer in Ashfield District Council’s environmental protection team, Sarah Gray, recommends that “a watching brief be kept for any possible historic land contamination” and adds that “proposals for dealing with potential asbestos contamination in the building should be submitted prior to demolition taking place.”
Planners are due to make a decision on the application by 30 June.
