SECOND Greenock West End House Proposal Is Rejected

INVERCLYDE planners have refused an application to build a house in the grounds of a Greenock West End property.

A two-bedroom, single-storey detached house was proposed for the grounds of 92 Newark Street, fronting Mews Lane at Westfield Drive.

Council officials said the plan would “fail to preserve or enhance” Greenock West End Conservation Area by sub-dividing one of the “large plots that characterise the area”.

They also stated that introducing “an additional built form” to Mews Lane was “contrary to its historic and continued development as a sparsely developed rear service lane”.

Quigley Architects had submitted a lengthy document seeking to persuade the planning department.

It stated: “We are of the opinion that within contemporary society there should be allowance for the sensitive conversion of very large Victorian market garden spaces, obsolete now that food production to supply the household is not required.

“There has always been a continuous sub-division of plot sizes over the centuries due to economic pressure and changes in social behaviour which, when carefully managed, has been successful and contributed to a built environment that we call the Greenock West End Conservation Area.

“It is important to note that Greenock’s West End was only labelled a ‘conservation area’ in the 1970s yet considered continuous development made the area what it is way before then so to use the argument of restricting development because it will change the character of an area is not understanding the subject matter.

“Look to the adjacent Madeira Lane to see how ’service lanes’ have been developed. There are many examples throughout the West End of precedent with this type of development.

“Our thoroughly researched design for a new dwellinghouse is both sensitive and harmonious with the existing building, its setting and the local built environment.”

The statement continues: “It is important to remember that Westfield Drive was constructed on the site of a former Victorian villa and a new street formed to access Mews Lane. As such, the considered placement of our building at the head of Westfield Drive gives a termination point to the street view rather than that of a brick wall.

“We believe therefore that by allowing the new ‘ancillary style’ building within the curtilage of the site it will be significantly beneficial now and for future generations by preserving and enhancing the building and its setting within Greenock’s West End Conservation Area.”

Another West End house application — for land in Finnart Street — has also recently been refused.