A new lease of life is being granted to a Sandown High Street property by an Island firm that hopes to kickstart the town’s regeneration.
The building which previously housed the Sandown Chef Fish and Chip Shop and Sandown Kebab Shop, on the corner of the High Street and York Road, has caught residents’ attention as scaffolding has been erected.
The shop has been empty for the last few years and been one of many properties campaigners have called to fix up.
Planning permission was granted in December 2019 for MCM Construction to rejuvenate the empty and increasingly run-down property into a restaurant with 5x 2-bed flats above it.
Comments were submitted at the time saying the site was important to the Sandown Conservation Area and any development should add some positive visual improvement. There were concerns the designs were not sympathetic to the High Street as the shop front was ‘too plain’ and ‘modern’, and Isle of Wight Council planning officers recommended the plans be turned down.
They said the rear extension would have a serious adverse impact on the amenities and living conditions of neighbouring property occupiers.
The council’s planning committee, however, unanimously overturned the officers’ advice and agreed to the plans, installing a condition that the materials used on the exterior of the property should be agreed upon as it was in a conservation area.
Earlier this year, the council agreed in part to some of the materials that could be used but there remained some surfaces which had yet to be agreed.
Now an update to the project, which sits opposite the Ocean Hotel and across from the Old Corner Bank, has been given by MCM.
Managing director, Brendan McMahon, said work started before the pandemic, after struggling to get permission for 7 years. However, it halted due to COVID-19 due to other building projects before restarting recently.
The rear of the building has been demolished and rebuilt to provide space for 3 of the flats, with the other 2 above the shop at the front of the building.
Work restarted in May this year, and Mr McMahon hopes it will be completed by Christmas.
The scaffolding erected will be used to re-roof the property, install new windows and paint the external walls.
Mr McMahon said:
“Hopefully this will help to provide a kick start for other businesses in Sandown and help in the much-needed regeneration of the High Street.”
Surely the project manager has forgotten this is Sandown, and step1 of any major alteration work begins with an arsonist doesn’t it?
really and truthfully, just an excuse to build flats
You’re having a laugh, surely?
5 two bedroom flats in an existing building with a commercial unit underneath is exactly the kind of building we need on the Isle of Wight.
What we don’t need are more and more greenfield developments.
And what is wrong with that ?
How the fcuk could this building on a prime tourist high street
have been sitting like an eyesore for many years.
This Council are clueless.
Any ugly eyesore needs bulldozing, the Island does not need any blots on the Landscape.
Sandown looks like It was blitzed overnight.
Clean up Sandown.
I fought for the site to be given planning permission and made the case for its regeneration. Thankfully, the Planning Committee supported me and agreed to approve the request to reconfigure the building.
Sincerely well done Councillor. As Smiffy says, five lots of accommodation and two modern units is exactly what the Island needs. A more attractive visage, employment for the people building it and the people who are going to work in the shops – and accommodation for five Island families but not on a greenfield site. I doubt anyone will move onto the Island just to be able to live in a flat in Sandown High Street, so unlikely to increase the population/vehicle ratio further. What’s not to like?
Bloody good show. Some positive steps forward. Though I can’t believe the Planning Department for saying ‘too modern and too plain’!!!!!!!!!! Anything has got to be an improvement on an empty eyesore. What’s wrong with these people? Don’t they not want Sandown to look better or something? No vision, that’s what the Government Task Force stated in their report. They are right aren’t they Councillors!!!!!!
Don’t forget, this is the same Planning Department that turned down the application to change to long closed Lloyds Bank into a residential property. Something about disrupting the commercial footfall!
Jealousy that a nice property would result more like.
Just how many closed banks have ever been resurrected as anything but wine bars or charity shops?
Umpa Lumpas, the lot of them. They haven’t got any vision and they don’t give a fig how long these buildings just sit there, decaying as each month passes. Hopefully everyone on the island will vote Labour at the next General Election and get these Muppets out of Country Hall. The island might stand a chance then.