Revised plans lodged for redevelopment of prime site in Alnmouth

Gary and Carolyn Cunningham received planning permission last year to demolish and rebuild their home on Riverside Road.

However, new plans have now been submitted for the site overlooking the Aln estuary.

The west elevation facing Riverside Road remains the same as on the approved plans with the exception of a third storey which has been removed from the new plans.

At a meeting of Alnmouth Parish Council, Carolyn said: “We’ve had a period of reflection during lockdown and a good chance to watch the circus of groundworks going on next door.

"It basically gave us a huge frightener as to what we were undertaking in demolishing a house, carting it out of the village, excavating the site and putting down more groundworks and we decided we didn’t want to go there.

"So we had a major rethink and this application is to modernise the existing house, keep it at two storeys and try to solve some of the problems the house has.

"We’re looking to improve the accessibility to all areas of the house and garden. The house needs a substantial upgrade on all fronts.

"The front of the house has taken a battering from the weather over the years and is in pretty poor condition so the vast majority of the west elevation needs to come down and be rebuilt.

"It has many advantages to those who live around us in that we’re not carting away a whole house and bringing in new materials to build a new house so the impact in terms of lorries going in and out is going to be greatly reduced.

"That house we had approved was too big and wasn’t what we wanted so we decided to bite the bullet and start on plan B and everything we’ve watched on Estuary Drive has made us more and more determined that this is what we want to do.”

The existing property was built in 1964 with an ‘upside down’ design to make the most of the views from a first floor lounge.

Parish councillors have welcomed the new plan.

Support your Gazette and become a subscriber today.

With a digital subscription you get access to the ad-lite version of our website, meaning you see fewer ads, enjoy faster load times and get all of the headlines you need with fewer distractions.

The Northumberland Gazette has been serving the county since 1854, and your support means we can continue telling your stories for generations to come.

Click here to subscribe.