Fresh plans for nine new flats on site of former Rushden police station

An application to turn the disused building, which has been described as an ‘eyesore’ into 11 flats and two semi-detached houses was refused in January on the grounds that, among other things, local housing need did not justify new flats in the area, the required demolition works exceeded what would be considered a ‘conversion’, and that the design of the rear two houses were of ‘limited architectural merit.’

Now, the same applicant, Harea Homes, intends to use the building to construct nine flats, consisting of eight one-bed apartments and one two-bed apartment, including parking spaces, with the applicant insisting all nine apartments will be within the existing building’s current footprint on the corner of Shirley Road and North Street.

Also proposed are a covered cycle parking for 12 bikes and a bin store.

One of the planning documents reads: “The proposed scheme would result in positive improvements to the street scene through improvements to the external appearance of the building and landscaping.

“All new occupants will have a high quality of residential amenity and the proposed design complements the existing building and surrounding character of the area.

"The proposed development would also have sufficient parking provision, especially considering the highly sustainable location of the site.”

This application notes there will be ‘minor external alterations to the building’, however the application notes that each of the nine properties will be within the existing building footprint, making the plans ‘a true conversion’, a key issue with the recently-refused application earlier this year.

If approved, parking provision would use the same vehicle access point from Shirley Road that the police station had used, though the number of spaces would be reduced to 11 from the original 13, with one spot delegated to each one-bedroom apartment, two spaces for the two-bedroom apartment, and one extra visitor car parking space for the remainder of the development.

Rushden police station has been vacant since it was sold in 2019, and has seen numerous applications to change its use to residential, including in August 2019, September 2019, February 2022, May 2022 and January 2025.

See the full application here.