College campus plans withdrawn (From Watford Observer)

College campus plans withdrawn

5:07pm Tuesday 4th December 2007

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Plans to build 248 homes on a former West Herts College campus have been withdrawn.

Homebuilder George Wimpey had applied for permission to build 172 two-bedroom flats, 17 three-bedroom houses and 59 four-bedroom houses on the disused Leggatts campus in Leggatts Way, Watford.

The application was due to be heard by Watford Borough Council's development control committee on Thursday evening. However, it was withdrawn after a report from the council's planning department that recommended committee members reject the development for 13 reasons.

Among the reasons was that it was an "overly dominant and poorly laid out scheme" that would be detrimental to the character and appearance of the area, an inadequate landscaping plan was provided to preserve local and protected animal species, and there was a failure to satisfactorily address noise from the A41.

Andy MacDougall, from Consensus Planning on behalf of George Wimpey, said the officers' report was influential in their decision but "not the sole reason".

He said: "Our client is relooking at it with a view to resubmitting the application after addressing some of the issues."

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