A High Court judge has ruled that plans to redevelop the Grade ll-listed former home of Sherlock Holmes author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle must be quashed.
Waverley Borough Council had approved plans to part demolish the property, known as Undershaw, near Haslemere, Surrey, and turn it into flats. This move was challenged in the High Court by John Gibson, founder of the Undershaw Preservation Trust.
The property, built in Hindhead in 1897, was where Conan Doyle wrote The Hound of the Baskervilles. The planning authority gave planning permission to owner Fossway Ltd permission in 2010 to redevelop the building.
Mr. Justice Cranston said that, because of legal flaws, the council’s decisions to grant planning permission for eight new flats and listed building consent must be quashed.
Bryn Morgan, the councillor responsible for planning at Waverley Borough Council, said: ‘Waverley handled these applications in the same professional way as the hundreds of other applications it receives each year.
‘As with any other application, it was judged on its merit. Sadly, the decision by the High Court places the future of the building back in doubt once again. The poor condition of the building will now only get worse as a result of this decision.’
He added: ‘Waverley doesn’t own the site but as the planning authority has acted in the interests of safeguarding the future of the whole site. We will now take some time to consider the judgement and will be talking to the site owners.’
Other objectors to the council’s plans included Sir Christopher Frayling, ex-chairman of the Arts Council; author Julian Barnes who set his Booker Prize-nominated novel ‘Arthur and George ‘ in Undershaw; writer Ian Rankin; and broadcaster Stephen Fry. The building had been used as a hotel since the 1920s and was left empty in 2005, falling into disrepair.
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