THE Planning Inspector has turned down an appeal by developers against Maldon District Council's (MDC) decision to refuse an application to convert Maldon's former police station into five apartments.

Maldon District Council refused the plans to turn the imposing building in West Square into the self-contained flats "with associated parking and landscaping" on 7 October last year.

The authority's planning officers concluded that the plans would result in the "loss of employment use and a community/service facility" – and that there was not enough evidence that it had been fully marketed for its "existing use" – as a commercial, community or service building.

Developer Court Langley Limited appealed the decision and yesterday (Thursday, 12 August) the Government's Planning Inspector decided MDC were in the right not to give permission for the plans to go ahead.

In his published decision, Inspector Robin Buchanan agreed that the site was correctly identified within the authority's local plan for "employment and community uses."

He said: "The proposal would result in the permanent loss of the building as a place of employment or as a community use, including in the wider sense as defined by the Council. It would do so without this having been adequately justified and could therefore have an undesirable adverse effect on the local economy and the provision of community facilities in the town centre.

"The development would diminish the council's overall strategy for retaining employment and community uses for sites."