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A report to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s conservation advisory committee said the scheme would bring economic benefits to the village.
A report to Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council’s conservation advisory committee said the scheme would bring economic benefits to the village.
Plans were submitted last
October to build a store on the site of a former bowling green St John’s
This would demolish five
bungalows fronting St
John’s
The council has yet to make a
decision and the Kimberley Development plans have since been modified.
A committee report by a council officer said: “I
am content that the visual impacts of the amended scheme would be adequately
and reasonably compensated for by the benefits that the store could generate in
visitors to and income for the wider conservation area.
“Further aspects such as
local employment and reversing leakage to other centres could produce further
benefits and increased spending in Knowle, with a consequent potential for
continued or improved maintenance of properties and spaces essential to the
special character of the conservation area.”
A smaller roof volume over
the two-storey area and staff amenity block was an improvement it said and the
block is “not unduly tall” and would be similar to others.
It would be a “large but not
excessive building” and there were now more “visual enhancements” it says.
In 2010, the firm submitted a
planning application to put the store on the site of the village hall, which
would have been provided on the bowling green
The report says: “The current
plans show a scheme that would better fit the context and local character of
Knowle than all previous submissions.”
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