Ilkley artists are delighted as studio plan is refused (From Wharfedale Observer)
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Ilkley artists are delighted as studio plan is refused
11:28am Friday 1st February 2013 in News
Potter Ken Jaquiery and artist Joy Godfrey outside the studios
Artists’ workshops have gained a reprieve after Bradford Council turned down a plan to convert them to houses.
Organisers of the Ilkley Art Trail and other members of the towns’s art community were among those who objected to the plans for Units 3 and 4 Back Nelson Road, saying the area could not afford to lose its few rented art studios.
Applicant Mike Hanson, of Town & Country properties, sought permis-sion to convert the workshops and studios to two homes, saying they were not commercially viable and would deteriorate in their present use – but planning officers acting under delegated powers this week rejected the plans.
They said standards of separation between the buildings and houses fronting Nelson Road were “significantly less” than might be expected in a conventional residential layout, and would lead to mutual overlooking of habitable room windows.
Planners also ruled arrangements for servicing, waste handling and storage were inadequate, and said the existing use of the buildings as artisan workshops contributed to the character and appearance of the Ilkley Conservation Area.
Artist, Joy Godfrey, who occupies one of the units, thanked those in the art community who wrote to the Council calling for the workshops to be retained, likening their support to the crowds who cheered British athletes to victory at the Olympics.
