Proposal for more flats above The Cother Arms rejected

As The Cother Arms is currently having issues with the bins from existing flats above it, the pub’s management may be relieved to hear a proposal for seven more has been blocked.

Watford Borough Council’s decision notice was published yesterday (March 13) and highlighted two reasons for refusal.

• Plan to turn office above pub into seven flats submitted
• Pub's nightmare as flats' bins pile so high they block deliveries
• Rat seen as rubbish not cleared from Salisbury Road flats, Watford

It said four of the units fail to provide enough floor area to meet national standards and added that because the designs do not depict internal room layouts it could not certify that enough built-in storage space and bathroom space was provided.

The development would also exacerbate demand for on-street car parking without including a unilateral undertaking removing future occupiers’ parking permit entitlement, the council added.

The offices, above The Cother Arms and Harry Charles Estate Agents. (Image: Stephen Danzig)

According to a floorplan submitted alongside the application, there would have been two two-bedroom flats, two one-bedrooms, and three studios in the building's reconfigured first floor.

It was proposed under permitted development rights.

The Watford Observer has previously reported how the bins behind the Cother Arms, belonging to separate flats, have not been cleared since October, leaving the overflowing waste to block supply access and attracted vermin.

The bins, belonging to the existing flats, behind the Cother Arms. (Image: Tanya Bunting)

Last week, Watford Borough Council confirmed the freeholder is in the process of getting a quote to remove all waste going forward and will be arranging to make a secure bin area.