Windows at Colchester's Silk Road nightclub could be saved

Osman Rasih, the owner of The Silk Road Lounge and Cocktail Bar, was told he must tear down his new windows after Colchester Council’s planning committee voted to throw out a retrospective planning application in September last year.

Mr Rasih had already replaced rotten wooden windows which were “in a state of disrepair” with new plastic ones.

But councillors ordered the work must be undone within two years because the nightclub is in a conservation area where applications to replace timber windows with UPVC ones aren’t usually supported.

Undeterred, however, the owner of the venue in St Botolph’s Street, Colchester, has now launched a fresh bid to try and save his windows – and councillors have been urged to give him the thumbs up.

Nightclub boss - Osman Rasih

The new proposal is almost identical to what had been previously thrown out, but with the addition of provisions to match the curvature of the old windows.

As before, the nightclub boss also wants to install a new timber door to the flats above the venue and plans to reinstate a parapet and clock at the front of the building.

Despite planning officers recommending the plans be approved and the bid receiving the support of Sam Good, chief executive of the Our Colchester business improvement district, the planning authority has received several objections to the latest application.

Colchester Civic Society is among the complainants, saying it objects “as strongly as possible to the latest application”.

Frustrated - Sam Good previously hit out at the council's planning committee (Image: Newsquest)

Their objection says the windows are a “particularly important feature” of the locally listed building and “form part of the character and provide a positive contribution” to the conservation area.

“We call again on the planning department and planning committee to ensure that we safeguard the original and the detail of our historic heritage of our buildings especially those described in their local listing,” the society wrote.

Mr Good previously hit out at the planning committee after their decision to axe the plans, estimating the cost of new wooden windows would set Mr Rasih back more than £100,000 more than plastic alternatives.