If you’ve an interest in the look of Ventnor’s Esplanade, you might want to go along to a Planning Inspectorate inquiry at County Hall tomorrow from 10am.
At it, the future of a beach-side site will be argued over by legal eagles.
The site – Le Veness – to the west of the Esplanade is the only dilapidated building on seafront at Ventnor has been long-uncared for.
It had planning permission granted over five years ago for a six-story development, in the views of many, quite out of character to its neighbouring buildings.
Late arrival of workmen
Development of the site didn’t occur during the majority of this time, but as the permission came close running out, a digger and some workmen appeared on site leading to concerns of locals.
The original planning permission specified that a number of reports had to be delivered to the council prior to development started.
One of these was a geo-technical survey, which we understand was handed in one day before the planning permission ran out.
In the opinion of the planning department at the council, these weren’t correctly provided. Given this, their view is that the planning permission lapsed.
Appeal lodged
The developer of the site disagreed and lodged an appeal with the Planning Inspectorate and has assembled a legal team to fight their corner.
In between the granting of the original planning permission and now, much of Ventnor is covered by a Conservation Area, so it’s unlikely for a building of such scale to gain planning permission again.
The meeting is tabled to last two days, starting at 10am at County Hall.
Further background on Le Veness
