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Eco homes plan gets go-ahead - COMMENT ON THE STORY
PLANS to build a block of eco-friendly apartments in Barrowcliff have been given the go-ahead.
The 10 apartments, for Yorkshire Coast Homes, are to be built on the site of a former community centre in Oxcliff.
However moves to try and close the ginnel, situated between the development and an adjoining property, were rejected as it was felt residents would lose an important public access to their local shops.
David Billing, vice-chairman of Scarborough Council's planning committee and county councillor for Woodlands ward which oversees Barrowcliff, said: "It is recognised there are problems in the area with anti-social behaviour but removing the ginnel is not necessarily the best way of solving the problem. The ginnel is the nearest route to the shops in Colescliffe Road, and access to other areas such as Bracken Hill and Oxcliff. The removal of the route would inconvenience quite a few people and would certainly add to their journey time. We also have to bear in mind that anything preventing business at this time is not good."
Ward councillor Phil McDonald, said there had been no consultation between the shops, residents or the tenants and residents committee which meet every month about the proposed closure of the ginnel. He added:" There are many elderly residents over 75 years, living in the area, who would have found, that they would be made virtually prisoners in their own homes, due to the added distance they would have to walk to go to the shops, if this walk way, were to be closed off.
"For seventy years this has been a public right of way that would be detrimental to the residents and two shop owners, one of which had been in existence for over sixty years and may not survive if this snicket were closed off."
It is proposed that the overall height of the flats would be 7.3m with the width of the building set to be 19.7 metres. The internal layout of the flats will be arranged around a central stair case that runs from the front to the back of the building, with four flats at both the ground and first floor levels, reducing to two apartments at second floor level.
The building will include sedum roofs, living wall screening and timber frame construction. It is planned to use renewable energy in the form of photovoltaics, bio-mass boilers, ground source heat pumps and solar water heating. The main roof of the building is to have a sedum finish upon which are to be fitted solar panels. The rear flat roof will also have a sedum finish.
The walls of the building are to have a rendered finish, eternit boarding and brick filled gabion walls. Mesh screen solar shading is proposed over the windows of the building to project 600 mm from the face of the wall. Surface water is to be drained from the sedum roofs to water butts for landscape use and to rainwater harvesting sustainable drainage within the grounds of the site. Two wind turbines were also included in the original drawings but these have now been removed from the scheme.
* See our Green Page on environmental issues in tomorrow's Evening News
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Weather for Scarborough
Saturday 26 May 2012
Today
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Temperature: 10 C to 15 C
Wind Speed: 17 mph
Wind direction: North east
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Temperature: 9 C to 16 C
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