Planning permission has been granted for a scheme to provide nine new council flats in Ramsgate.
The flats -4 one-bed and 5 two-bed will be built at the rear of 161 to 213 Clements Road.
The site is currently a car park, a hard surfaced clothes drying area and grassed area. It will be used for the flats block after demolition of storage buildings.
The building will be three storeys with three flats on each level. It will have solar panels on the flat roof.
The existing access to the site will be used for the new development and the parking on the site will be rearranged. A new community garden will be created in the centre of the site in front of the new building and the existing footpaths around the site will be altered to provide access.
Additional parking spaces will be provided to the north and south of the site to serve both new and existing residents. Nine electric vehicle charging points will be provided on the site aa well as a new bin and bike store.
The flats form part of Thanet council’s Phase 4 building programme to create social housing. The council aims to provide 400 new affordable homes by 2027.
Three letters of objection have been received for the Clements Road scheme raising concerns including the lack of clothes drying facilities, loss of parking spaces and a possible increase in anti-social behaviour.
The site at Clements Road began development in the late 1940s and was first occupied by post war pre fabs along the extent of the road stacked in pairs.
The site area was formerly farmland, and the development formed the boundary of development to this green wedge.
In the late 1970s the site was redeveloped with 12 three-storey apartment blocks arranged in perpendicular pairs along the road, enclosing green space (generally grass and planted trees), drying courts, small masonry stores and car parking.
The new proposal is intended for 50+ aged tenants in a bid to free up family homes. The flats will be 100% affordable/ social rent. Ten new parking spaces are proposed.
Thanet council’s housing programme has included agreement to buy homes at Tothill Street in Minster and at sites including Reading Street, Westwood and Spitfire Green.
New build council homes are earmarked for Tomlin Drive, Dane Valley Road and the former Dane Valley Arms site in Margate, and Staner Court and the Clements Road site in Ramsgate.
All of these are brownfield sites, which means the land has been previously developed. They are all owned by the council, and currently have either disused garages or laundry drying areas on them.
Thanet council has been allocated £685,275 of government funding to support the council homes building project.
