Planning permission has been granted for the conversion of 28 Gateacre Brow - the former Joan Molyneux hair salon - into a double-glazing showroom for Fairview Windows Ltd. A conservatory and small extension will be built at the rear, but the approved plans do not indicate any changes to the front elevation apart from a new front door and a simple painted fascia sign.

The application by David Wilson Homes to build houses and apartments on the site of E.H.Williams' Gateacre Garden Centre was WITHDRAWN on 22nd November.

Planning permission to use 1 Halewood Road - the former Post Office - as a café was granted, in spite of objections from ourselves and others, in November.  This permission will NOT now be implemented, however. Instead, Messrs Desmond Bannon are opening the premises as the 'Sandstone House Funeral Home' in early March. A planning application for this change of use is not required, as funeral directors and post offices both fall into Use Class A1 - 'Shops'.

The temporary embargo on new housing development outside the inner-city Pathfinder area (see last Newsletter) is to be superseded by a Supplementary Planning Document, a draft of which was issued by the City Council in November. We were consulted on this, and submitted a number of comments which we hope will be reflected in the final version. We are supportive of the ban on housebuilding in the southern and eastern suburbs, and in favour of some of the proposed exemptions: for example permitting the conversion of listed buildings where necessary to ensure their conservation. We are worried, however, that some of the other 'loopholes' in the new policy could be exploited by profit-seeking developers. We have pointed out that there are already plenty of secondhand houses available in the Woolton/Gateacre area to satisfy the demand for 'up-market' family accommodation, and the proposal to allow "the provision of … houses of 4 bedrooms or more, at lower densities" in such areas may have undesirable consequences.