10:43 am, July 26, 2024
A luxury second-hand car dealer in east London is hoping to turn its showroom into a site displaying just one high-end vehicle.
The application by Imperials Hornchurch follows its failed attempt last year to tear down the one-storey building in Butts Green Road and replace it with a three-storey premises.
Havering Council said that proposal would have been ‘unacceptably dominant and visually intrusive’ and threw it out.
Imperials – whose stock currently includes a Porsche 911, Lamborghini Huracan and a Bentley Continental – now wants the go-ahead to pull down the building and put up a two-storey one in its place, according to the Romford Recorder.
The redevelopment, costing up to £2m, would see the upper floor consisting of office space, while the ground floor would be the showroom – which would be entirely devoted to just one car.
In its planning statement for the current application made on behalf of Imperials Prestige Properties, SDP Studio said Imperials Hornchuch also lodged an application in April for another mezzanine floor rather than three storeys.
However, it was retracted once it became known that its design would still have seen it given a recommendation for refusal.
The new showroom would cover more than 200 square metres but the first floor would be set back and there’d be no mezzanine level.
A decision is due by September 9 and if approved, work would begin in January, with it expected to take no more than six months.
Main image via Google Street View
