Ashfield Council to consider converting derelict shops into houses

A plan has been put forward designed to improve the standards of derelict shops which are converted into houses in Ashfield.
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If approved, it will make it easier for the council to reject plans which it feels are not of a high enough standard.

In part due to the relatively low price of former retail units, more developers are buying the units and converting them into accommodation.

But the leader of the council, Jason Zadrozny, says some of the conversions have been done to a low standard.

The new scheme, which is expected to be approved next week, would give the council more legal grounds to reject low-end applications.

Councillor Zadrozny represents the Larwood ward for the Ashfield Independents party, and said: “In Sutton and Hucknall particularly, we’ve got big arterial routes where the town centres have sort of shrunk towards the middle, leaving behind retail units.

“Some of the conversions look horrific, they’re very poor living accommodation and are a long way away from what we would expect to see from a new development.

“Because retail units sell cheaper, some developers think they can do the job on the cheap, but if you have got those sort of conversions going on you need them to be of a good quality.

“A lot of them are on very busy roads on the way into our town centres, and we don’t want them to look rubbish, because unfortunately some of them do.”

The plan is expected to be approved at a cabinet meeting of Ashfield Dsitrict Council on Monday, January 21.