Blackpool promenade apartments set for refusal

Blackpool Council planners have recommended a 30-home scheme off Queens Promenade for refusal, arguing the scheme would be an “overly large and incongruous addition” to the town.

The scheme, designed by Ben Jurin Architecture, sits on a site just off Queens Promenade, and features 30 apartments along with a gym, spa, and swimming pool at lower ground floor level.

The proposals feature grey brickwork to the ground floor levels with zinc cladding to the first and second floors, along with a grey render to the third-floor elevation, and glazing balustrades on the third and fourth floors, which will also feature a roof terrace.

Plans were submitted in August this year, but the scheme is now set to go before Blackpool’s planning committee next week with a recommendation for refusal.

In their report to committee, Blackpool Council planners said there had been “fairly protracted pre-application discussions” over the project, and added that while “some improvements have been made to the initial submission,” it would need “fundamental changes and reductions in scale… are considered necessary to achieve a proposal which is anywhere [near] being supportable.”

Criticism of the scheme centred on its scale, size, and its location; the site is next to the Ma Kelly’s pub, which remains open until 3AM. Planners said “the only way the site would be suitable for residential purposes would be if the operational times of Ma Kelly’s were significantly reduced”; the site is also not allocated for housing under Blackpool’s Local Plan.

Planners also took issue with the development’s scale, arguing the development would “create a cramped, overly large, bulky and incongruous addition to the street scene, which would visually jar and clash with adjacent properties”.

Blackpool’s planning committee is due to discuss the application on 16 October.