Council approves plans to turn Chesterfield’s Brampton Manor into apartments

The site owner, HP General Partner Ltd, was last week given conditional permission by Chesterfield Borough Council’s planning committee to turn the existing 16th century Manor House into four apartments and the club house into a single apartment, while the barn can be transformed into three garages.

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During the consultation into the proposals, the borough council received 18 letters from residents who all described Brampton Manor as a ‘valuable community facility’ which ‘should remain accessible to the public’.

Meanwhile, Craig Lynch – who has held the tenancy at Brampton Manor for 15 years, operating the pub, restaurant, celebrations and beauty salon there – told the authority: “Brampton Manor has been available to the public as a popular community facility for decades and the proposed change of use would result in the loss of this community facility.”

A borough council spokesperson said: “The planning committee gave this application full consideration.

“Given that a number of other community facilities exist close to this site, on balance it was decided that the benefits of restoration of the group of listed buildings at the site including those at risk outweighed any concerns regarding the loss of a community facility.

“The approval includes several key conditions that further ensure that this site will continue to be a local heritage asset.”

According to planning documents, there is an ongoing legal case between the site owner and the tenant in relation to the premises, located off Old Road.

Simon White, of HP General Partner Ltd, said he was ‘pleased’ the borough council had approved the plans but added: “The actual implementation of that permission cannot be started until several planning conditions have been satisfied and, more importantly, until we obtain vacant possession of the building.”

He said while Mr Lynch ‘remains in occupation we cannot progress actual works but we will be working on discharging the relevant planning conditions’.

Referring to the proposals for Brampton Manor and the recent announcement that up to 60 homes could be built at a former office site nearby, Mr Lynch told of his ‘disappointment’ that the planning committee decided ‘what will eventually be a new community needs no community facilities’.

He said: “We would have obviously preferred a common sense compromise of the Manor House serving this new and the existing community and the public still being able to view the much-restored interior, whether it is under my company’s management or some other body.

“I made it clear that there are other avenues open to the borough council to have the listed buildings repaired.”

Mr Lynch also said he was waiting to see a ‘key condition document’ relating to repairs to the at-risk barn which will ‘largely determine the timescale and costs of any development proceeding’.

“We are not in a position to say what will happen next with the venue, but as this has been going on for almost four years it may well run and run,” he added.

“If the barn is required to be fully re-instated, the costs when properly surveyed and agreed with Historic England may make the project unviable and the works could well take a lot longer than the three years the planning consent has to be implemented.”

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