Stratford Scout hut rebuild back before planners tonight

A second attempt to demolish and rebuild the 1st Stratford-upon-Avon Scout Group’s headquarters on New Broad Street goes before Stratford-on-Avon District Council’s Planning Committee tonight, Wednesday 12 August, with officers recommending approval despite 52 letters of objection and opposition from both the town council and the ward councillor. The committee meets at 6pm in the Council Chamber at Elizabeth House on Church Street, and the full agenda and reports are on the council’s website.

The Scout hut, take two

The Scout group wants to replace its single-storey hut with a two-storey building. A first version of the scheme, reference 24/00942/FUL, was refused in August 2024 over its impact on the conservation area, in particular its scale and materials. The officer’s report on the new application, 25/02675/FUL, says the redesign has addressed those concerns: the front elevation is now broken into two elements, one set back from the other, the building sits about half a metre back from the neighbouring Old Town Court, and the materials have been revised, with red brick in varied coursing.

Objectors are not persuaded. The council received 28 letters of objection, including from the countryside charity CPRE, and a further 24 when amended plans went out for consultation, against two letters of support. The objections centre on the bulk of a two-storey building in a conservation area street of houses, loss of light to neighbours, and parking and traffic on a street objectors describe as too small to serve a busier community building. Stratford-upon-Avon Town Council supports the principle of a new hut but has maintained its objection to this design, and ward councillor J Fradgley, who backs renewing the hut in principle, objects over its bulk and over construction traffic and parking, writing “I cannot emphasise enough the concern and anger and community upset” that access and parking are causing in the area.

If the committee grants permission, conditions would require windows and doors to be kept closed when amplified music is played after 9pm, no music audible in neighbouring homes after 11pm, and a construction management plan to be approved before any demolition starts.

Flats for Great Alne’s derelict social club

The most heavily objected item on the agenda is in Great Alne, near Alcester, where application 26/00524/FUL would convert the vacant and derelict Great Alne Social Club into four one-bedroom flats. The officer’s report records 70 letters of objection, plus an objection from the parish council, which argues the building has historically been a community asset and that putting homes next door to the Memorial Hall, the village’s only working community facility, could restrict the hall’s events and hit its lettings income. Officers recommend approval.

Five homes off an unadopted Bidford road

In Bidford-on-Avon, application 26/00032/FUL from Geraghty Group Limited would demolish a conservatory and outbuildings at 68 Westholme Road and build five houses behind it, with a changed vehicle access onto the road. Ward councillor D Pemberton and the parish council both object, along with 28 letters from residents; the parish council’s concerns focus on the extra traffic using an unadopted private road that also carries a Heart of England Way footpath used by children walking to school. Officers recommend approval.

The final item, 26/00568/FUL, would let a holiday cottage at the former stables behind Copperfield on Broad Lane, Tanworth-in-Arden become an ordinary home. It is at committee because the parish council objects; two residents’ letters, one from the Tanworth Residents Association, also object, and officers again recommend approval.

What it means for you

All four applications carry a grant recommendation, but the recommendation is not the decision: the committee weighs the evidence itself, and each of these items is only at committee because a parish or town council or ward member formally objected. The meeting is public, at 6pm tonight in the Council Chamber, Elizabeth House, Church Street, Stratford-upon-Avon, and decisions are normally published with the minutes in the days that follow. We will report the outcomes.

For how planning works across the district, including how to comment on live applications, see our Stratford planning news page.