Lotus axes big return

Lotus Shoes today ditched plans to return to its home town after councillors rejected planning permission for a four-storey office at Acton Gate.

Owners the Jacobson Group said they have been searching for a site in Stafford for two years and this was the only one they could come up with.

"The fact of the matter is there is nowhere else," managing director Harvey Jacobson told the Express & Star today. "It is really disappointing, quite upsetting.

"We always wanted to come back to Stafford and this site was ideal. The decision is not logical," he added.

A full meeting of Stafford Borough Council last night voted 23-15 to refuse the Jacobson Group's plans for a 20,000sq ft four-storey office building on a triangular two-acre site off the A449 at Acton Gate.

The decision was referred to the full council after the development control committee approved the scheme on the casting vote of the chairman a week ago.

Councillor Barry Stamp, who proposed the refusal, said the building would have been twice the height of nearby homes and would have overshadowed them.

"There would be a great mass of an office block next to the houses," he said.

Councillor Stamp said such schemes should be in the town centre where there were lots of available sites.

He said the Acton Gate site was also beset by highways problems because it was close to a railway bridge and had only 45 car park spaces against the 62 needed.

Head of planning Chris Hindle, who recommended approval, had warned the scheme did conflict with local plan policies and could be called in for determination by the Secretary of State for the Environment.

Manor ward councillor Geoff Rowlands said local residents were concerned about the "massing" and he feared if planning permission was given there would be further applications for developments of the same height on the site. Councillor Doug Davis pointed out it was not a "greenfield" site and there was an existing permission for a car showroom and workshop. He said the proposed building was well designed and would be screened by an embankment and a substantial planting scheme.

The Jacobson Group, which bought Lotus in 2004, wanted to bring the historic company, which relocated to Northampton in 1999, back to Stafford. Lotus, which started in Stafford in 1759 and is believed to be the oldest British footwear brand, had hoped to celebrate its 250th anniversary in a new headquarters in Stafford.