Stop The Demolition of Cannon Street School

The Lymington Society today launched a campaign to stop the demolition of a much loved building in the heart of the Lymington Conservation area which is currently under threat.

The attractive Victorian building on the corner of Canon Street and North Close, which at one stage seemed likely to become the Register Office for Lymington, is threatened with demolition in order to build a block of 16 flats for Swaythling Housing Association.

Despite a slight reduction from the previous application for 20 flats, the new application represents a density of 106 dwellings per hectare which is one of the greatest building densities of any recent application in the town and is far in excess of the 35 to 40 units per hectare set out as a minimum in the now infamous PPG3 planning guidance from Mr John Prescott

The Lymington Society is extremely supportive of the provision of affordable houses, however it is not prepared to support the demolition of a historic and attractive old building which could be renovated and reused, no matter how pressing need is for social housing.

Away from the historic High Street, we are losing many of our older and attractive Victorian and Edwardian buildings such as Hillcroft in New Street and many others. Although the school building is not a “listed building” it is an historic and attractive building which represents one of the last old buildings in this part of the town and the Society is strongly of the opinion that this building should be retained.