Proposals to create seven, 2-bed flats and add extensions to a former Royal School for Deaf Children property have been submitted to Thanet council.
The proposal is to alter Allen Rise, one of four houses in Park Crescent called The Allen’s formerly used by the school for its post-16 pupils.
The school closed in 2015 and the site has now been cleared. The Allen’s were sold at auction last year for £1.5million.
The proposal is to convert the existing building for use as apartments by demolishing extensions and replacing with new extensions of two storeys to the side and rear , together with use of the existing and proposed new roof spaces.
There will be three apartments on the ground and on the first floor together with a single apartment within the roof space. On site parking will be retained to the front of the property with one parking space for each new apartment.
A new rear amenity area will be provided with a mix of hard and soft landscaping including native species. Secure cycle parking will be provided to the rear of the building.
Allen Rise, Allen House, Allen Villa and Allen Lodge went under the hammer with Clive Emson auctioneers last June.
A fifth house in the row, Tresla House, is understood to be earmarked for demolition.
Margate’s Royal School for Deaf Children shut down suddenly in December 2015 after The John Townsend Trust, which ran it, went into administration.
The distressing closure of the school and Westgate College resulted in some 500 job losses and scores of children left without a specialist school placement.
In 2022 Kent County Council put forward a potential 200 home development at the site as part of Thanet council’s Local Plan review.
The land had been earmarked for a new secondary school but in 2021 this proposal was ditched for a second time by KCC following discussions with the Department for Education over the forecast of pupil numbers in the district.
A decision has not yet been made on the application. Proposals can be viewed on Thanet council’s planning portal – reference F/TH/23/1664
