Development Now Underway at Ashton House Site

Almost four years after a planning application was originally made, development will be going ahead on the Ashton House site in the Oxton Village Conservation Area.

The site has been unused for over six years, when the NHS Trust withdrew services.

Under the plans which have just been given approval:

• Ashton House itself will be retained and converted into 11 apartments

• Adcote House and Kent House will be demolished

• 5 new houses will be built, three backing onto Alton Road and two onto Kent Street

• The distinctive sandstone walls surrounding the site will be retained, as will most of the mature trees

• The entrance will be from Columbia Road, with parking provision on site

• The smaller Thorn Heys unit at the top of Columbia Road is also disused, but currently still owned by the NHS Trust and is not part of the scheme.

The NHS Trust closed its services on the site in early 2019. They informed Oxton's Lib Dem councillors in October that year that tenders were being drawn up for the sale of the site.

Councillor Allan Brame arranged for immediate neighbours and officers of the Oxton Society to be given a tour of the premises. Many of the original features of the house had been lost over the years, but the impressive main staircase remained.

Concerns focused on these issues:

• the need to preserve Ashton House itself as a key landmark at the entrance to the village

• the importance of the sandstone walls as a significant feature

• the retention of the mature trees on the site

• the need to ensure any development was sympathetic to its location in the Conservation Area.

David Pluck were the successful bidders and announced on their website: "We recently acquired this piece of prime real estate in the heart of Oxton Village Wirral including the well-known Ashton House for £1.2m as an investment."

After the purchase, Councillors Stuart Kelly and Allan Brame organised an online meeting with members of the Oxton Society to hear their concerns about the site. (This was during the Covid lockdown).

The planning application was lodged in the summer of 2021 and it was clear that the reservations had been addressed. The Oxton Society were not overly impressed with the design of the five new houses and the architect was asked to come back with revised details.

Then came a series of increasingly frustrating delays. Two surveys had to be taken to check for the presence of bats. Another quango raised queries about the historic value of Adcote House. Planning officers were diverted to urgent work on Wirral's Local Plan. There were two changes of the case officer allocated to determine this application.

Meanwhile, intruders broke into the buildings on a number of times, causing damage and flooding the site on one occasion.

Allan Brame made numerous phone calls and sent countless emails, liaising between the developer, architect and planning officers to try to push things forward.

He escalated matters to the Chief Executive earlier this year, saying if it took the Planning Department four years to approve plans for sixteen dwellings, it did not bode well for Wirral's obligation to approve planning for over 14,000 houses under the Local Plan!

Allan Brame said, “Approval has finally been given and work is expected to begin fairly soon. Contractors will be accessing the site from Columbia Road and will be largely shielded by the sandstone walls.

“It has been a battle, but I am looking forward to seeing new life breathed into this historic building and sixteen new homes in Oxton village.”