But Roayl Mail and others are not happy about it!
Despite strong opposition from neighbours—including the Royal Mail—Waverley Planners have granted planning consent to convert the former Barclays Bank building.
With no parking!
The decision has incensed some townsfolk who believe parking is essential in such a central part of the high street. A few months back, Surrey County Council proposed removing all public parking in front of the Post Office. An outcry prompted a rethink, and the proposal was dropped.
Strong objection from Royal Mail
The Royal Mail Delivery Offices off Bloggs Way operate in the early morning hours when the mail arrives from the mail centre for onward delivery to residents and businesses.
Heavy Goods Vehicles (7.5-tonne HGVs) bring mail to the site before being loaded into individual vans for local deliveries. These activities can be a source of noise and disturbance. The hours of operation, volume of mail and traffic naturally increase at various points in the year (e.g. Christmas), which coincides with holiday periods.
Access to the Royal Mail yard is via Bloggs Way, which runs between Royal Mail and the proposed development site. All vehicles accessing the DO use this access.
Noise Issues
The application proposes new residential neighbours on the first floor, located next to the current Royal Mail delivery yard. Plans show residential accommodation with windows of habitable rooms facing the direction of the Royal Mail yard. Regular vehicle traffic in the yard and the noise caused by the loading and unloading of mail during the late-night and early-morning hours are likely to harm future occupants’ residential amenities.
No noise impact assessment has been submitted with the application. A robust noise assessment, which includes 24-hour monitoring of noise generated by Royal Mail, is required to test the impact of noise from Royal Mail activities appropriately and allow your authority to determine how this impact will be appropriately mitigated to protect potential occupiers.
There are also 11 letters raising objections on the following grounds:
No parking provision for residents.
Parking demand could obstruct access to local businesses fronting the High Street.
Challenges with waste collection.
Disruption from construction work.
There is a danger of access into flats from shared access to Royal Mail Depot, with frequent trips by post office vans and lorries.
Focus on lowering business rates to attract independent businesses.
Not in keeping with the high street.
Accommodation
Space standards specify that any new dwellinghouse will only be eligible for permitted development rights if it has a gross internal floor area of at least 37 square metres and complies with the nationally described space standards. Unit 1 1-bedroom unit (2-person) – Unit Size – 54.1m2 – Bedroom 1 – 13m2 (2 person) Unit 2 1-bedroom unit (2-person) – Unit Size – 64.3m2 – Bedroom 1 – 13.2m2 (2 person) Unit 3 2-bedroom unit (4-person) – Unit Size – 84.4m2 – Bedroom 1 – 15.7m2 (2 person) – Bedroom 2 – 13.3m2 (2 person)
The size of all units and bedrooms would comply with Technical Space Standards (2015).
Surrey County Highway Authority (CHA) has considered it subject to conditions; there would be no access or highway safety objection.
However, No parking will be provided as part of the development. Whilst it is appreciated from objections to current issues in terms of parking and access to delivery vehicles, the CHA does not object to a car-free approach being adopted for sustainably located sites.
The development is located within the Village Centre, within walking distance of schools, healthcare facilities, community facilities, and shops. It is also close to bus stops in Cranleigh, providing onward travel to other destinations.
Furthermore, the Royal Mail Cranleigh depot HGV movements. are noted. However, this situation would not be materially worse than the existing service access for the previous Barclays Bank and current Class E use.
The CHA recommends that the applicant and Waverley agree to prevent future residential occupants from being able to obtain a car park permit or season tickets (excluding blue badge) for the council car parks (specifically Stocklund Square and Village Way car park).
However, such a request could not be conditioned as it is an in-perpetuity request and consequently would have to be secured via legal agreement. This would not be possible with the application type. After further review, officers consider that not securing such a provision would not be sufficient to warrant a refusal and that the development’s transport impacts, with emphasis on safe site access, would be acceptable.
How do these planner get and stay employed with numpty planning decisions like this!?!?! Unbelievable desk based out of touch from reality of living….!?!?!