Colchester: Housebuilder wants to now build 28 flats in Clarendon Way

Plans were successfully submitted to Colchester Council earlier this year to build 21 apartments at the former site of Childsplay Adventureland, in Clarendon Way.

The popular children’s soft play space was forced to close because of the coronavirus pandemic, and it was demolished earlier this year to make way for housing.

The site was sold to current owners Newell Homes.

Site - Childsplay Adventureland (Image: Google)

Pomery Planning Consultants has filed an application on behalf of Newell Homes to amend the plans and build a 28-apartment complex with car parking.

It would accommodate the extra flats by raising the height of the building, making it a 3.5 storeys tall, with the top floor being partly within the roof space.

The complex will be a mix of four one-bed flats and 24 two-bed flats.

Upper floor apartments will have a balcony and ground floor units will have a terrace.

Area - another image of Clarendon Way (Image: Google Maps)

Each apartment will have a parking space and there will be three visitor parking spaces.

Colchester resident Molly Garlick, who lives nearby, said: “It was a terrible shame that Adventureland shut a few years ago.

“I wasn’t best pleased when I heard that 21 flats were going to be built on the land but now having heard the housebuilder wants to build 28 instead is awful.

“The flats will be a complete eyesore.

“We need more hospitals and schools rather than flats.”

Resident Billy Fenton says the complex isn’t needed.

He said: “Having already been approved for the building of 21 flats in Clarendon Way, the addition of seven more seems greedy.

“I regularly walk through that area of Colchester to the train station and have seen a lot of development in this area in recent years.

“Another three-plus-storey building is totally unnecessary.”

The application claims the “development will contribute positively to housing supply”.

Castle Ward Councillor - Councillor Richard Kirkby-Taylor (Image: Newsquest)

Castle Ward councillor Richard Kirby-Taylor said: “From an ecological point of view, a higher density building in an accessible location with good transport links, like this area has, must be better than building on greenfield sites.

“My major concern when a developer says they are going to add more flats to a development, is the size of flats on the site.

“Far too often, as I work in construction, I see houses not fit for their purpose.

"They are too small. The Government needs to have a really hard look at the regulations around housing sizes.”