One Stop, 9 Tower Street, which leases space to the Post Office, will not be redeveloped in the foreseeable future. The wannabe “developer”, an investment company, has not made any effort over the last three years to start the development. This has led to its planning permission expiring under national rules. Any new plans will have to start from scratch.
I always suspected that this development wouldn’t happen. The property developer, Surrey based Machan Investments Ltd, is unknown in Ludlow. But its speculative application was submitted and after the usual debate it was approved. That permission has now failed and that could be bad news for Ludlow.
We need regeneration of the Galdeford Corner. It should be a gateway to Ludlow. Attracting customers to Galdeford and Tower Street as a location in its own right. Preserving its convenience store and the Post Office.
Macham Investments Ltd published plans to redevelop the ugly but useful One Stop site at 9 Tower Street (16/04032/FUL). The scheme was approved on 13 April 2017. That planning permission was valid for three years and expired yesterday. Over those three years, we would have expected a gradual discharge of the conditions attached to the planning permission. We would have expected some minor variations to the permission as the developer worked through the practicalities of redeveloping a town centre site. But none of that has happened. There has been nothing other than silence from Macham.
One Stop, 9 Tower Street, was a speculative development where the speculation failed. If Macham wants to proceed with this development then it must apply for planning permission from scratch.
There are other options.
The scheme to redevelop the adjacent former Budgens site is promoted by Morris Property. It has been designed by the same architect as the failed One Stop scheme, Trevor Hewitt. The Budgens scheme doesn’t yet have planning permission. We have an opportunity to revamp both schemes and to build a better gateway into Ludlow from its main car parks.
As a community, we must have two requirements for any redevelopment of this area. A convenience store should remain on this site and the Post Office must remain. It is good place for apartments above retail.
The retail market is always shifting and no one knows what retail will look like in few years’ time. But we need stores on Galdeford Corner (perhaps we should call this area Galdeford Tower) that will attract footfall. We need stores that local people need and stores that will bring people into Ludlow.