Approved Littlehampton riverside apartments ‘will be quite spectacular’

In the past plans had been turned down for the Riverside Autos site on the southern side of River Road, but officers at Arun District Council felt recent changes to the development had overcome the previous reasons for refusal.

These included reducing the height of the new buildings on the southern end and submission of extra information showing the current buildings are not viable to be retained for employment purposes.

An application for the partial demolition of number 57 and construction of new buildings to create six new apartments overlooking the River Arun was unanimously approved by the council’s planning committee on Wednesday (November 24).

The scheme would see the existing building’s façade retained and repaired as would be the majority of the existing flint wall.

Jane Wood, owner of both number 47 and 57, said she bought both sites to ‘save the last remaining pieces of the historic East Bank marine history of warehousing and fishing sheds’.

However she described how the building was in such a dilapidated state it could not be saved in its entirety.

She added: “I love Littlehampton. This development has been designed to keep as much of the old part of the building as possible.”

Speaking in support of the plans was Robert Boyce who felt they were ‘exactly what we in the harbour need’ and described the proposed development as ‘dramatic and striking’.

He suggested the scheme ‘preserves the best of the original buildings while breathing new life into them’.

He added: “It’s an honest, elegant solution to the problem of preserving the best of the past whilst adapting to the requirements of the future.”

Billy Blanchard-Cooper (LDem, Brookfield) acknowledged there were levels of both support and opposition, saying ‘some people will love this and some people will hate it’.

But personally, he said: “There does come a point with sites where their usefulness has hit a wall and the ability to retain any part of the history I think is commendable. I’m really pleased with this one because it does keep the character of the site.”

David Edwards (Con, Felpham East) added: “I really like this, it’s different, it’s fresh and dare I say almost unique. It will be quite spectacular to look at both from the road, but also from the river.”