27 Aug 2025
An appeal over plans to demolish Marlborough House and replace it with two five storey residential buildings has been quashed by a planning inspector.
The vacant 1960s office building in Upper Marlborough Road has been the subject of previous planning applications for redevelopment, with the latest proposing 76 sites on the flat, together with associated car parking, landscaping and other works.
It was bought by property company Telereal Trillium for £7.9 in 2021.
The council’s planning and development committee turned down the scheme despite officers recommending approval because they considered its design and size was considered to be harmful to the character and appearance of the street scene, the Conservation Area and non-designated heritage assets.
They also highlighted the lack of a Section 106 agreement to mitigate the impact of the development on local services.
The inspector agreed, and listed the main issues as:
The effect of the proposed development on the character and appearance of the area, including the St Albans Conservation Area and the Locally Listed buildings at 3-43 Liverpool Road and 4-14 Upper Marlborough Road;
Whether the proposal makes adequate provision for any additional needs for infrastructure arising from the development with particular regard to highways;
The effect on the living conditions of neighbouring occupiers with particular regard to overlooking or overbearing effect to the properties at Liverpool Road.
It was resolved that the serious harm caused to the Conservation Area would not be outweighed by the public benefits of the proposal, which included local housing need and repurposing brownfield sites to avoid building on the Green Belt, and it also wouldn’t provide much-needed affordable housing for commercial reasons.
The inspector said: “The development seeks to recreate the historic building line of the Victorian properties, but at a size and bulk associated with the modern buildings in this area.
“Together this results in a scale and massing which is visually inappropriate compared to the historic context, harmfully dominant in the streetscene and jars against both the traditional Victorian buildings and the modern developments eroding the overall aesthetic cohesion.”
Crucially, although SADC claims its Local Plan, which is in the examination stage at the present time, meets the Government’s housing targets, the inspector highlighted that the housing figure in this document has not been calculated using the standard method as set out in the 2024 National Planning Policy Framework, which might result in further developments being approved further down the line.
