Permission given for empty shop to be used for residential purposes

Plans have been approved to change the use of a shop at the top of Uckfield High Street to residential.

The shop at 222 High Street, on the same side of the road as Limelight and further north, has been empty for two years.

A decision notice from Wealden Council says the change of use "would not be detrimental to the residential amenities of nearby occupiers, nor harm the function of Uckfield as a local shopping centre and there were no other material considerations sufficient to justify a decision other than to permit".

A marketing campaign which included a reduction in price last year was unsuccessful and documents submitted with the application said it had always been more difficult to let shops in the northern part of the High Street.

That end of town suited specialist-style trades which relied on customers knowing where they were rather than relying on heavy footfall and passing trade. Two other shops nearby had also attracted little interest.

There would be no physical changes to the building and the proposals would not prevent a commercial use at some time in the future, said a letter on behalf of the applicant Mrs Claire Parry.

The listed building was originally a residential property but probably sub-divided in the Victorian period to all the shop on the ground floor, it said.

The floors above are in residential use and there is a large garden behind the building. Use of the ground floor for residential would create a traditional family home with access directly on to the garden.

'The area already contains residential uses at ground floor and so the proposed use would not be out of character. In fact, the original use of this building was residential. The mix of uses in this area of residential and commercial would perpetuate and the proposal would not be out of character,' said the letter.

(Added to site Thursday, April 15th, 2010)