‘Underutilised’ community hall to be turned into new home

The community room (the single building in the middle of the picture) will be converted into accommodation.

It was proposed to change the use of the Senior Citizens Community Room at Hinton Road into a single dwelling with three bedrooms, a large bathroom, kitchen and living room. It would provide a home for a tenant with disabilities, with off road parking provided within the existing car park and a new dropped kerb is to be created for wheelchair access.

The application had been submitted by Northampton Partnership Homes (NPH) and was given the green light by members of Northampton Borough Council’s planning committee when it met virtually last week (July 28).

The approval came despite the application being called in by ward councillor Nilesh Parekh, and with 15 objections being raised by neighbours who were concerned at the loss of a community asset.

Comments raised by the objectors included there being nowhere for the elderly community to go; that it was currently in use for different groups and as a polling station; that there are groups which would like to take over or run the facility. There were also concerns that a new dwelling would lead to loss of light, overlooking, noise disturbance and burglary, and that the home would ‘not be in keeping with the area’.

But NPH said the application was due to the building being underutilised. NPH conducted a review of the usage of all the community hubs, with 16 set to be reduced to 13. A number of the remaining 13 centres are to be refurbished, while the three centres with low usage – of which Hinton Road was one – are to be redeveloped into residential accommodation for new tenants.

Councillors unanimously approved the plans, with Councillor Jane Birch praising NPH for its consultation. She said: “A number of my residents were perhaps using this centre even though it has a very low usage. But I understand that the groups that were meeting there have been moved to other centres nearby and there will be no detriment to the local community. So I really appreciate all the work NPH has done to make sure that nobody is disadvantaged as a result of this.”