A proposal for flats in place of some offices in Harold Wood has been turned down by Havering Council.

A planning application was sent by the Courtenay Group on September 15 to change the use of Arundel Business Centre in Station Road from commercial to residential.

It sought to adapt the three-storey building to provide seven new private residential dwellings, with one flat on the ground floor and three on the two upper floors each.

The existing property, the application said, benefited from a “reasonable number of windows” thereby ensuring that all flats will meet minimum daylight criteria.

Read More: Havering Council rejects Chesham House, Romford flats plan

But a report by a planning officer said the development would result in “poor living conditions” for future occupants due to “insufficient provision of natural light”.

Future occupiers, they said, would likely have a noise impact from the commercial properties nearby, in particular a pub.

Havering Council refused the application on November 14. A detailed list of all the grounds of refusal can be found on this link: https://development.havering.gov.uk/OcellaWeb/planningDetails?reference=J0031.23&from=planningSearch

This was a third such attempt made by the applicant, with previous proposals to build nine units and then eight units approved but not implemented within the given period.