A PLANNING application, described as ‘sneaky’ by a senior Dorset councillor has been agreed.

It will see an extra floor, with six apartments, added to Vespasian House off the Bridport Road in Dorchester.

Despite the comment the procedure to gain planning permission, under prior approval rules, is perfectly legitimate although seldom used.

Dorchester town councillors complained that the extension, for six ‘penthouse apartments’ in the roof of the building would be an overdevelopment, adding to parking and traffic problems in the area.

The building, used as offices for the NHS and previously by the Inland Revenue, currently has permission for conversion into 31 flats for RTI Estates Ltd.

The use of the extra floor and the previously agreed conversion to flats was requested by the company under permitted development rules, which led to the re-design of the building being considered by planning officer without going through the full planning process, which had it been needed, would almost certainly have been slower and more costly.

Cllr Richard Biggs told fellow town councillors when the application was first discussed that the route chosen to get consent could be seen as “sneaky”. The site is on the edge of a Conservation Area and adjacent to listed buildings, including The Keep Military Museum.

“Having yet more flats will just put more strain on parking in the area,” he said, adding that for those living in the roof space, if the extra flats are allowed, were likely to be “absolutely baking” in the warmer months of the year.

Cllr Fiona Kent-Ledger, who had previously worked in the building, said that by using the roof space for homes, she feared that the way the building was designed, to regulate its own temperature, would no longer work.

“It is also very close to the listed Keep and Barracks buildings and will dominate the area with extra flats… I’m uncomfortable with this whole scenario just to get six more flats in,” she said.

RTI chief executive Malcolm Curtis told the Dorset Echo earlier this year: “We have looked at how we can repurpose the building in a positive way for the community and local economy as part of our wider ongoing regeneration of the Barrack Quarter.

“We are exploring the possibility of delivering rental homes, with flexible leases from six months up to five years that provide families not only high quality modern sustainable homes but also provide flexible and secure tenures not normally associated with the rental sector.

“We believe that with demand for rental properties being so high, this would be an ideal, long-term sustainable repurposing of Vespasian House.”

Illustration – Drawing of the proposed use of the fourth floor for flats, some with Juliet balconies.

Pic – Vespasian House, currently being converted from offices to flats.