In July, plans were submitted by Churchill Living to build a new retirement complex on the land at 30-36 Fisherton Street.
The proposal sought to redevelop the vacant brownfield land to create 47 retirement apartments, alongside commercial units on the ground floor, which will open onto Malthouse Lane and Fisherton Street.
The apartments were proposed to be for over 60s who wished to maintain freedom and independence as they get older whilst being part of a retirement living community.
Plans for the development were scrutinised by the likes of Salisbury City Council, who said it objected “due to the lack of affordable housing”.
The proposed flats on Fisherton Street (Image: Wiltshire Council) The city council said it “would like to see 40 per cent [of the development] designated to affordable housing, the design to be more sympathetic to the church, also SCC would support bat and swift boxes and more biodiverse build.”
Despite some amendments to the design made in November, some comments made, including from Salisbury Civic Society, continued to object. The civic society said: “Amended drawings show some improvements to treatment of the facades, in terms of window materials, but the proposal still falls well short of doing justice to the prominent location of the site.”
In the decision notice published on December 23, Wiltshire Council refused planning permission for two reasons.
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One stated: “the proposed development is located in a busy city centre location where there is potential for significant noise from surrounding uses. It is considered that the noise assessment submitted with the application provides insufficient justification and information for the methods used to reach the conclusions that it has and as such it is considered that there is potential for noise conflict to future occupiers of the scheme.
“The report also fails to take into account a significant number of dwellings in the proposed scheme may have to choose to keep their windows closed to mitigate noise to achieve suitable ambient internal noise levels”.
The other reason was: “that the application should be able to provide contributions towards affordable housing provision, and ecological mitigation”.
Churchill Living already owns Sarum Lodge retirement flats on Rollestone Street, among several other retirement homes owned by competitors across the city.
To view the plans and decision notice in full, click here.