Parking concerns fail to stop plan go-ahead for Rugby

The scheme for Avro House, on the corner of Bath Street and William Street, was considered at their last meeting after being called in by Cllr Richard Harrington (Lab, Benn).

He told the committee: “I have spoken to people on Bath Street and William Street and parking is one of the main issues. It is OK saying that people won’t have cars but what about people coming to visit. You also have the problem with school parking and further down William Street there are double yellow lines.

“We haven’t had the engagement with the residents who will be affected by this. We have so many HMOs in the Benn ward that it is changing the demographics of the area. It is not managed as it should be and the facilities are not there.”

Some of those concerns were echoed by Cllr Barbara Brown (Lab, New Bilton) who said: “My feeling is that any additional pressure on parking on those streets will cause problems - and people will have visitors and people coming to service the flats.”

A report to the planning committee explained that the premises had previously been an office housing 12 members of staff so there would be no greater impact on parking issues which had led to the county council’s highways team having no objection.

And any worries around noise and anti-social behaviour from residents were addressed by the applicant, Emma Estill, who said potential residents were vetted.