Local Authority

PARENTS and carers in Hertfordshire are being urged to apply in advance for their children's school places next year.

The process for moving to secondary or upper school opens next Monday (6) and an information booklet will be handed out to year six pupils this week.

Applications can be made online or a paper application can be handed in to the local admissions and transport team. Forms can no longer be returned to a child's current primary school.

RESIDENTS who opposed a new retirement home in Northwood, amid fears about a lack of parking and GP services, are celebrating after the proposals were unanimously rejected.

Plans were submitted to demolish a pair of internally linked semi-detached houses, formerly a children's home, in Chester Road, part of the Old Northwood Area of Special Local Character.

The houses would have been replaced with a 24-bedroom, two storey care home for the elderly, plus three parking spaces.

But six petitions with signed by 166 residents in total, including those living in Chester Road, Hallowell Road, Reginald Road and Roy Road, were submitted against the development, arguing the influx of elderly residents would have a 'profound effect on local GP surgeries, which are already overstretched.'

NORTHWOOD: conversion of roof space to habitable use to include a conversion of roof from hip to gable end with a new gable end window.

ARGYLE HOUSE JOEL STREET - Details in compliance with conditions: Part second floor change of use from Class B1 (offices) to Class D1 (non-residential institution for education).

79 NORTHWOOD WAY - Side dormer extension to existing habitable roof space.

54 CLOSEMEAD CLOSE - Conversion of garage for habitable space with alterations to existing front.

A DECISION has been delayed on plans to demolish offices in Rickmansworth High Street, to make way for a retirement home.

Developer Churchill Retirement Living has proposed to knock down the empty offices and in their place build 42 apartments in a four-storey block, plus 14 parking spaces, for people aged 60 and over - as reported in last week's Gazette.

FREE swimming for pensioners and young people will not be cancelled at the end of the summer, Three Rivers District Council (TRDC) announced today (18).

The council previously pledged to continue offering free swimming at three pools across the district, including William Penn Leisure Centre in Mill End, only until the end of the school holidays, amid fears the government would axe the £70,000 grant funding necessary for the scheme to continue.

But the Department for Culture, Media and Sport has now promised a reduced £28,000 grant, meaning the scheme can carry on through the autumn, with TRDC making up the shortfall in funding.

PLANS to knock down offices in Rickmansworth to make way for a retirement home are set to be given the green light.

Permission is being sought for the demolition of office buildings in High Street, Rickmansworth, and the construction of sheltered apartments for the elderly. The application will be heard at the Development Control Committee meeting in Three Rivers House, Rickmansworth, tomorrow (19) evening.

The office blocks are vacant, and have been on the market for the past 16 months, with no firm offers coming in in that time.

55 HIGHLAND ROAD - Single storey side/front/rear extension to provide 1 one-bedroom annexe.

15 GATEHILL ROAD - Conversion of roof space to habitable use involving raising of roof height, to include 1 rear and 1 side dormer, 3 rear rooflights, front porch, bay windows to ground and first floor front, part two storey part first floor part single storey sides/rear extensions involving the demolition of existing outbuildings to side/rear and installation of vehicular crossover to front.

42 LINKSWAY - Part single storey part two storey side/rear extension, front porch, conversion of integral garage to habitable space and conversion of roof space to habitable use with 2 rear dormers and 2 rooflights to sides.

COUNCILLORS have defied the advice of planning officials to allow a vacant shop in Northwood Hills to reopen as a café, despite being told that it would harm the vitality of the local area.

Officers from Hillingdon Council had warned that opening yet another food outlet in the area around Northwood Hills station "would result in a concentration of non-retail uses within this part of the primary shopping frontage which would be detrimental to the vitality and viability of the shopping centre".

A SOCIAL club in Maple Cross has been allowed to continue serving alcohol and playing live music in its extended premises, despite complaints from residents about noise pollution.

Maple Cross Club was required to reapply for its existing licence after announcing plans to double the size of its building, in Longcroft Road, and install a second bar and hall, plus a medical room.

THE demolition of a footbridge in Maple Cross has been delayed until next month.

The bridge, in A412 Denham Way, was due to be removed last weekend by Maple Cross Investments, a company due to build an office development on the same road.

A spokesperson for Hertfordshire County Council said the company did not have the necessary legal agreements in place, and the work will be carried out on September 11 and 12.