Magpas Air Ambulance: Former office plans rejected

Concerns were raised that not enough information had been provided to show some of the flats would get enough natural light.

The proposals were put forward by Walnut Tree Holdings Ltd to convert the office building in St Marys Street, called Centenary House, into 14 flats, including nine one-bedroom flats and five two-bedroom flats.

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Office buildings are allowed to be converted into flats without full planning permission under permitted development rights.

However, there are some things that still need to be considered, including whether all of the habitable rooms would have enough natural light.

A report published by Huntingdonshire District Council said planning officers had concerns that two of the proposed flats would not get enough natural light.

The report said all of the habitable rooms were proposed to have windows, but that overshadowing meant there may not be adequate natural light reaching two of the flats.

Officers said no sunlight assessment had been completed to address the concerns and said there was “insufficient information” to show converting the office block into flats would provide acceptable levels of natural light.

The district council therefore refused permission for the conversion.

This application followed previous proposals to knock down the entire office block in order to build 30 new retirement flats.

However, these plans were refused by the district council last year after concerns were raised that the new four-storey building would be “overbearing” and would lead to a loss of daylight for people living in some of the nearby houses.