Council Approves Plan To Convert Former Historic Romford School Into Housing.

Local democracy reporter Sebastian Mann today writes:

Plans to convert an historic former school in Romford into housing have been approved by Cabinet.

Century Youth House, in Albert Road, will be turned into nine new residences – eight three-bedroom homes and one two-bed.

The scheme was approved at a meeting of Havering Council’s planning committee on 13th March.

Parts of the building will be demolished but its ‘historic core’ will be “retained,” the committee was told.

Habib Neshat, a planning officer, said “We do not get many family houses” in central Romford, which was a “positive feature” of the plans.

Havering Council is facing a housing shortage, as many London authorities are, having overspent by £6.1million on temporary accommodation last year.

A representative from Mercury Land Holdings (MLH), a property developer wholly owned by the council, said the historic building’s look would be preserved. It has also proposed keeping the school’s 1883 dedication plaque.

Century House stopped being used as a school in 1979 but was recently used as a pupil referral unit for young people who had been expelled or were too ill for schooling. It has sat dormant since 2018.

The plans include provisions for eight car parking spaces, which previously led to concerns about traffic flow.

Though she broadly supported the scheme, Conservative ward councillor Judith Holt quoted residents as saying that parking was “at a premium” on the road, where they “often struggled” to find a space.

They said the road was already “extremely busy” and the extra traffic would “not be appreciated”.

Christopher Ward, a resident living nearby, told the committee last night he would also lose “a lot of his privacy,” as the proposed homes were “much taller” than their neighbours.

However, the MLH representative said the new residences would not overlook people’s homes.

A planning application was formally submitted in December last year, but was called in for scrutiny by Labour ward councillor Jane Keane. Her concerns were centred around her constituents losing privacy and sunlight.

Havering Residents Association councillor Graham Williamson, cabinet member for development and regeneration, said last year: “Our goal is to create new homes to help meet the housing needs of our residents and we welcome this proposal which is sympathetic to the heritage of the building.”

The building was designated as surplus to the council’s needs under its asset disposal strategy for 2022 through 2028.

Development of the site is slated to begin later this year.

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