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Search the Public Notice PortalHerefordshire townspeople will have to wait a little longer for a derelict block of flats at a prominent spot to be demolished and replaced. And that could take the form of a “toilet block”, it has been claimed.
A six-apartment block had already been approved in April 2024 to replace Riverview Flats in Wye Street, Ross-on-Wye – built only in the 1970s but understood to have been vacant since 2017.
“Our client purchased the property earlier in the year [2025] and we are tasked with reviewing the scheme to provide a higher-quality development and something more of its time,” according to a subsequent planning application by Coombes Everitt Architects on behalf of Cotswold House Builders (CHB) of Gloucestershire.
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Larger than the approved design, and terraced, the new owners’ proposal for the site was to consist of four two-bedroom and two three-bedroom apartments for market sale.
The scheme was “strongly supported” by Ross-on-Wye Town Council, which said in October it would “greatly improve the gateway to the town”.
Charlie Baker, co-owner of the Riverside Inn opposite, also gave his “full support” to the plan for the site, “which has unfortunately been a derelict eyesore for many years”.
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It would bring “a much-improved first impression for visitors and benefiting local residents and businesses alike”, he said.
But Government agency Historic England said that, in contrast to the approved “more appropriate” scheme for the site, the new terraced design “only emphasises a larger scale which is at odds with the modest three-storey grade II listed townhouses adjacent”.
Similarly, Wye Valley National Landscape’s planning officer objected that CHB’s proposal “would introduce a more dominant, visually assertive and contemporary building that does not further the conservation and enhancement of (inter)nationally important views”.
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CHB director Tom Head said: “The support from people locally had been really good. It’s just been the Historic England and Wye National Landscape comments that are negative.”
But on that basis they had been advised to withdraw the application, after an offer to modify the design “wasn’t enough”.
“This has left us in a position where we may have to develop out the previously approved low-quality scheme, affectionately nicknamed the ‘toilet block’ by neighbours, rather than the high quality modern one we proposed,” he added.
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