How to get planning permission to demolish an old property included in the local heritage

Platinum Homes, This is a tricky one. As the local authority deem it a building of architectural interest it will be difficult to argue its demolition irrelevant of whether it is listed or not. (These may later become listed buildings) You are within your rights to appeal this refusal within 6 months of the date on the decision notice. You could try and building a strong case for demolition with emphasis on local housing needs, this may sway their decision, however, generally speaking, when a local authority refuses a proposal under these grounds it may be unlikely for them to change their minds. I suggest a rethink in incorporating the existing building as part of your development, that way you demonstrate a willingness to compromise. Depending on the existing buildings type/ size, there may be mechanisms in which you could agree the retention of the facade and build within and higher for example. I hope this helps.

Just because it not listed does not mean the local council dont deem it of architectural value. before you can even think about challenging there decision you need to know why they value this building so highly once you have this information then you can counter with your own reasons on why your plans are better. But basically would not hold my breathe on the council changing there views. Good luck Alex

There are no easy solutions to the problem, the other way round this is only if the said building is not structurally sound i.e. poses danger to the public. Or too damaged to recondition under the "reasonably practicably" clause. Do note that the local authority have the right to protect heritage assets that are non-listed buildings and buildings outside of conservation areas from demolition by using an article 4 direction to remove these permitted development rights.

There are several lists for listing properties. The main one being the list from Historic England. However, all councils are at liberty to have a local listing for their area. This being that any local person can suggest that any building of architectural interest is listed. Once listed it gets added to the local list and checked against planning permissions. The local list unlike the Historic England list bears no reason for why it was added. So finding out why they deem it important to keep may be tricky. I'd suggest looking at the property history on the planning website in case there is more information there. However if you are adamant about its removal to facilitate your scheme, then best to build a case of structural integrity of the building, the business case of how long it has been empty for (or not used as a business if it was one), and only then go for housing need in that area. Look to the Strategic Land for Housing Lists to highlight how many homes and where they had planned to deliver each year. If the building is in a good state of repair you may be best try to incorporate into the design either refurbish in entirety or suggest facade retention as a compromise. The hardest person to convince won't be the planner it will be the heritage or conservation officer.

Engaging in a pre-app dialogue with the local council would have been helpful in this case, especially given the scale of the development. As others have said, a building can be locally listed by a council and differs from that held by historic england. I'm surprised that further due dilligence was not carried out earlier on in the process with this, a block of 60 flats in a city centre location is quite a large scale development and engaging with local planning authority at an early stage mitigates these situations. Without knowing intimate details of the site or location I would say that it is best to consider a redesign whereby the existing building it utilised within the scheme in some way or engage with a heritage consultant/architect that specialises in schemes like this. There are so many nuances to these situations and you really need someone who knows their stuff.