Flats will replace eyesore gap on town’s high street after ’embarrassing’ delay

Fenland District Council’s planning committee approved new flats for the former site of two listed buildings that had sat ‘decaying for 20-plus years’

Plans to plug an eyesore gap on a town’s high street have finally been approved after two decades of delays which were branded as “embarrassing” for the council.

The two properties at 11-12 High Street in Wisbech, were demolished in 2020 after lying empty for years but it was only this year that an application was submitted to replace them. Fenland District Council’s planning committee has now approved plans to build a commercial premises and six one-bedroom flats on the site of the former Grade II listed buildings.

The flats will be accessed from the back of the property on Castle Mews. Councillors said the delay approving a new plan for the site was “embarrassing”, as the land is owned by the council, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

At a cabinet meeting, Conservative councillor Samantha Hoy said it was “not acceptable” that the building “sat there decaying for 20-plus years”. She said it had also taken “so long” to redevelop nearby 24 High Street, which had become known as ‘the gap’, and they “need to get the work started”.

They asked for answers after discovering that an earlier application was rejected for an issue around the bat survey which was not told to some cabinet members. This included the councillor in charge of planning, leading council leader Chris Boden to ask for answers.

He said: “We must have an explanation about how this has ended up happening. It’s embarrassing to the council, to be quite honest, that we should be put in this position.”

The planning committee passed the application at a meeting on Wednesday, September 23.

Cllr Jan French, of March South, said: “I fully support this – this has gone on for several years, and I’m sure that the people of Wisbech and Wisbech Town Council will welcome this.”