Council plans for 11 new homes on land at Staner Court

Staner Court (Image www.hmy.uk.com)

Thanet council is planning to build 11 social housing homes on land to the rear of Staner Court in Ramsgate.

The proposal is to reconfigure the existing hardstanding, amenity space, garages and parking areas to provide the two and three-bed family homes.

Proposals are also to improve landscaping and create a larger communal garden area for the existing Thanet District Council residents at the site.

Documents outlining the plans say Thanet council expects the homes to be designed as net zero or nearly net zero, to achieve an air tight, thermally efficient and high performing homes. The design will  include technologies to provide low carbon energy.

Current site

The site is currently occupied by 43 parking spaces and 23 garages and a sub-station. The area is not allocated for development in the Thanet Local Plan – a blueprint for isle housing and infrastructure – but is brownfield land.

The current site at Staner Court begun development in 1964 and completed construction in 1965. The towerblock has 89 council flats over 15 storeys on land that was historically farmland and later allotment gardens.

Since then land next to Staner Court has been developed into homes in Meridian Close and further major build projects are taking place on greenfield sites off Manston Road and New Haine Road.

Current site

Designers for the 11 council-built homes looked at three layout options forming a cul de sac and then turning the homes around for a ‘street’ option

.The later design development looked to reduce parking and provide some more landscaping to buffer the proposed housing and replace 36 of 41 existing parking bays.

Design documents say: “We have proposed to develop the north eastern corner of the site. Whilst this is under used and a potential hot-spot for antisocial behaviour, we would aim to ensure the remaining amenity space is improved.”

Image www.hmy.uk.com

The proposal is set out in seven phases. The first is concept design and pre-planning which started on April 28 and runs to June 1.

During this phase the project design team prepare architectural concepts and designs will be reviewed and improved with input from Thanet council and wider stakeholders including residents.

This phase is currently running and views can be lodged on the Your Voice website (closing in 2 weeks) at https://yourvoice.thanet.gov.uk/en-GB/projects/staner-court-ramsgate

During this phase, the council will also instruct ‘ground investigation’ meaning some resident parking areas may be impacted and parking may be restricted to allow access for machinery.

The next stage is a review of designs/plans and phase 3 is further design development.

Phase 4 is the submission of a planning application. During the application stage there will be a formal consultation period, normally lasting for 21 days. The application will be considered by the planning committee.

Assuming the plans are approved the council will then put the project out to tender for a main contractor.

Phase 6 will be for residents to meet the contractor and put any questions to them

The last phase is construction. This will start with the main contractor taking possession of the site, installing the relevant security measures and carrying out site enabling works before the main construction works begin.

Thanet council says it envisages a 12-18 month build programme, subject to the tender the council receives in stage 5.

Image by www.hmy.uk.com

Comments already made on the Your Vice site raise concerns over reduced parking. Currently the site has around 45 spaces to serve 89 flats in the tower block and another 30 flats in the three smaller blocks.

One resident said: “Most residents are all in favour of more council housing but this is madness when there is already a shortage of parking.”

Another said: “Whilst social housing is a good thing, I don’t believe that building houses on the land around Staner Court is a good idea. In the proposed plans (TDC is) removing much needed parking spaces. The car park already gets overcrowded due to lack of spaces and residents use the garages also.

“As a resident being in a flat I value having an outside area to be able to use. If this area is developed on (TDC) will be taking it away from residents in the main tower block and low rise flats as well.”

Thanet council’s affordable housing programme

Phase 3 homes in King Street

The proposals are part of the council’s phase 4 Affordable Housing Programme. The phase 4 build, buy and refurbish programme to provide social homes in the district has an £8.8million projected spend for up to 36 homes.

The programme is paid for through the council’s housing revenue account, right-to-buy proceeds and funding from the Homes and Communities Agency (HCA). Phase 3 provided new build council homes in King Street and Sussex Street, Ramsgate.

Thanet council plans to increase the number of new build council homes in the latest phase from 36 to 61 and will fund it by transferring £8.1 million earmarked for phase 5 to the current build as well as increasing the budget for 2024/25 by £0.2m.

Phase 4 of the affordable housing development programme covers the 2020-24 financial years. It includes the purchase of 14 properties which has already been completed at a cost of £3.4million.

Twenty-two new homes were due to be started on site in March 2023 and this will now be increased to 47 homes. The council plans for some of the units to be infill sites on existing estates including the site at Staner Court and one at Clements Road.

Thanet council has also bought the former Dane Valley Arms site in Millmead which, the authority says, has capacity for 20 homes and there are detailed design proposals for infill sites in and around Tomlin Drive, where garages are being brought down to make way for between 9-11 homes.

View the Staner Court plans here

20 Comments

  1. Why not use the fields opposite,? Who would want to live where a tower block is constantly looking down on you no privacy at all

  2. I’ve got a garden if they want to chuck 60 up on that too!!

    How many mote do we need in that area ffs

  3. The 3rd bedrooms will be 7.5 m2. “Box room” doesn’t even come close to describing that. Tiny little houses squeezed into a completely unsuitable space.

    • Which is 1m2 greater than the minimum size for a bedroom deemed suitable for a person over the age of 10. These are homes to be let at social rents and as such need to provide the max possible at minimum cost, i find it quite laughable that there are social housing tenants who are against more social housing near them and compaining about the reduction in parking , anyone would think they were paying market rates like the rest of us, who similarly see the streets with insufficient parking and green spaces. Welcome to the real world.

  4. Back in 1985 I was working for Bryant homes. The show homes had furniture special made to fit the houses. When the people moved in the 3rd bedroom had to have the door taken off to get there beds to fit . They even reduced the hight of the rooms by 1 brick . So if people measure the show house to order curtains. Quite a few we’re on the floor because of the hight difference. Was interesting working there.

  5. The site where the garages are at staner court it’s states underused garages.The reason for that is thanet council will not let them to people anymore to make it look like no one what’s to rent them which is not the case there is a long waiting list for these garages. But not no more council think its best to squeeze more tiny homes here. Sod Tennant that rent garages at £19 a week

  6. Way build more homes on this site where are the bungalows that the poor disabled people that live in staner court could move into with the lifts breaking down all the time water damage from leaks in the block that blow all the electrics.the water is not fit to drink constantly smells of sewage so how are they going to build more houses when this sewage pipes won’t take it with more homes being built around staner court

  7. I think the TDC Planning is a joke just did 15 flats in Ramsgate with nowhere to park a car and now they are starting more with no parking at all
    and some can not add up 24 garages and they are putting bark 10 parking bays
    sorry the TDC are not thinking about the people at all when they go to work you would like to come home and put your car in a garage and hope it will be a bit safer
    no, you get home and you have to find a parking bay if there is one left

  8. So you want to put your car in a garage when you come home?

    Well, I want you to stop driving your car. I want to feel and be safe when I cross the road. I don’t want the countryside hacked to bits because of people’s addiction to car driving. I don’t want the pollution from traffic to make people ill and in some cases, kill them.

    I want people to lobby their local MP for vastly better public transport, and if they get it- use it. The attitude of most car drivers – at least the ones who comment here- seems like pure selfishness.

    • So what your saying is there should not be cars on the road ok then I am on 24/7 callout and a front-line worker so i have to pay from a taxi or a bus and wait
      so the next time someone dies I will send the family around to you and you can say why I could not get there in time + when was the last time you went on a train from here to London in the day it can cost £110.00 round trip who has that money to spend nowadays

      • A peak time return fare to London costs about £90, without a railcard.
        An off peak fare, with a railcard is about £35. Apex fares can be had for less than a tenner each way.
        How much does it cost to drive to London and back, including fuel and pro-rata insurance, tax, mot, repairs and depreciation?
        Just because you need your car, on account of your being a front line worker on 24×7 call, doesn’t mean that the rest of us are.

  9. They can’t look after the flats that are there, my son and his wife and three children live in a two bedroom flat so cramped in there , the lift which was newly fitted no so long ago is nearly always out of order or it will stop when you are in there, the flooding which happened again not so long ago Thanet council shame on you , this this sorting before you start planning more eyesores , where is your planing for dr surgery’s schools roads in and out of Margate there is only so much this little isle can take and how much money is being made out of other people misery.

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