Offices set to become 45 student rooms in East Street, Epsom
Councillors have approved plans to convert an office building into student accommodation, despite Epsom Council launching a bid to protect its business district from a controversial change to planning law.
The council said last week that it is aiming to introduce protection for Adelphi Court, Crossways House and Bradford House, in East Street, Epsom after a change in planning law, introduced by the Government in May, which frees developers from having to obtain planning permission from the council to change office space into residential use.
But last Thursday, September 5, the council’s planning committee approved the conversion of three floors of Crossways, which has been vacant since 2010, into 45 student bedrooms for Epsom’s University of the Creative Arts (UCA), with office use being retained only on the ground floor …