Plans to turn a historic former vicarage into a dental practice have been passed despite concerns raised by Historic England.
Planners have given the green light to the proposals for the Grade II listed building that’s next to St Paul’s Church in Spalding.
The application for change of use and alterations to a listed building is from Robert Doughty Consultancy and does not say which dental surgery is involved.
Changes include an extension of the car parking area to 21 spaces from its current five, the building of a wooden ‘plant room’ to store power equipment and disabled access created.
Inside, the applicant would look to put a removable wall in the kitchen to create the dental surgery and new flooring placed on top of the existing ones.
Historic England raised objection, particularly to the car park.
Its representation said: “The proposed car parking spaces and associated alterations to the vicarage garden at the south would cause harm to the former vicarage and the Church of St Paul through eroding their historic setting.
“The car parking spaces would introduce hard landscaping to the setting of the vicarage and church and would create an incongruous visual intrusion to the historic character of this important group of George Gilbert Scott buildings.”
After conversations and amendments the group’s statement says: “We consider that the proposed scheme would still cause some harm to the significance of the assets identified in our previous comments, although this would be less harmful than the original scheme.”
South Holland’s Conservation Officer had no objections while Spalding and District Civic Society supported the application stating: “The property has been unoccupied for a considerable amount of time, and it is considered that the proposed use, which retains the external facade, apart from the building up of the garage door is a viable use and much needed in the town.”
Planning officers agreed saying the harm would be ‘less than substantial’ as the application was passed.
