Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
Unlimited Digital Access / Get £25 off your Annual Digital Subscription! Use code 25OFF
GET STARTEDMore on KentOnline
An abandoned scrapyard will be transformed into a housing development if new plans are approved.
R & M Estates and Management Ltd is looking to build six homes on the former Ripleys Scrap and Recycling Yard in Bilsington near Ashford.
The 1.2-acre site off Brisley Lane wraps around Mulberry House, a large residential property which is currently being renovated.
If the outline plans are given the nod by Ashford Borough Council (ABC), vacant buildings on the plot will be demolished to make way for the development.
Ripleys, which still has a site in Ashford on Ellingham Industrial Estate, previously used the land to crush vehicles and store recovered materials.
Applicant Rory Mason, of R & M Estates and Management Ltd, says his “high-quality residential scheme” will “provide an enhancement to the immediate area”.
Greenery will be “maintained” around the site's perimeter as Mr Mason states he will need to “respect the semi-rural setting”.
All homes will include gardens and "adequate parking space", and it is envisaged the detached houses will be predominantly two storeys in height.
In 2017, ABC refused plans to demolish Mulberry House, then called Casa Amica, and build seven properties on the site.
The scheme was allowed on appeal later that year but work never commenced.
Writing on behalf of Mr Mason, Hobbs Parker Property Consultants said: "The proposal before you is a viable scheme which would enable the retention of the existing property (now known as Mulberry House) to enable a deliverable scheme of six additional dwellings.
"The appeal decision should be given weight as a material consideration in the decision making process."
The new plans, which are set to use the existing access point off Brisley Lane, are set to be discussed at a meeting of Bilsington Parish Council on Thursday (January 4).
Aldington and Bonnington Parish Council chairman Cllr Linda Harman, who is also ABC's cabinet member for planning, told KentOnline it would be "inappropriate to comment" as the application is still under consideration.
