Demolition of existing retail unit to the front and existing unit to the rear of the site. Erection of 4 storey building to the front with ground floor A1 retail unit, and three additional floors to provide 3no. residential flats. Erection of new block and single storey link to the rear consisting of 20no. residential flats with associated cycle store, shared public space, hard and soft landscaping. 

10-11 Market Street Faversham Kent ME13 7AA

Ref. No: 23/500728/FULL | Validated: Fri 31 Mar 2023 | Status: Awaiting

The Faversham Society strongly objects to this proposal. 

• The Ground Floor retail space will be reduced to roughly 40% of the size of the present shop:   Clearly, the present, larger shop is viable and popular, it meets an important retail need in the town,.
• Architecturally, the design has no sense of place and has no relevance to Faversham,
• The building will be as high as the Victorian curved building at the bottom of Preston Street (opticians and clothes shop) and will dwarf 8 Market Street (flooring shop) and the two-floor shops opposite.
• The proposed elevation onto Market Street is of low-quality design and of a bigger scale than the present 1950’s elevation.  
• The floor plans have small and inconveniently shaped rooms.
• Most of the flats will look across narrow open spaces to plain and boring brick walls.
• The small yards in front of the Ground Floor units are only 900 or 1500mm wide and so overshadowed that the planting shown on the drawings won’t have enough light to grow.
• The so-called public space( linking the small and large blocks at Second Floor level) will be overshadowed by the large block and adjacent buildings for much of the year; even in summer it will receive sunlight only briefly just before midday and again in mid-afternoon.

We object strongly to this application on the grounds that:-

1. it proposes a gross over-development of the site;
2. the massing, scale, architectural character and detailing are all inappropriate to the historic core and urban grain of Faversham;
3. despite statements to the contrary in the submitted reports, the building design pays no regard to its context.
4. the massing, scale and character of the proposal each seriously damage the character and settings of the adjacent and surrounding Listed Buildings;
5. the massing, scale and character of the proposal do nothing to enhance but actually cause serious harm the character of the Conservation Area.
6. the main block of the proposal provides cramped housing, much with inadequate daylight, overlooked by adjacent buildings and with a poor outlook.
7. despite the suggestion to the contrary, the proposal will overshadow the backs of adjacent properties in Market Street and Preston Street, reducing their daylight and sunlight and damaging/restricting their outlook and privacy;
8. We object to the reduction/loss of what is clearly viable retail space in the historic core.