Belgrave Hall
Conservation Area Society

The former "Piggy's Pantry" and former body toning shop has been empty for 30 yrs. Quite often the side door is forced open allowing persons to enter the premises and use it for anti-social purposes, turning on the water and causing flooding to neighbouring properties. This building has now been granted planning permission for conversion into flats. The Society made comments on the planning application to try and ensure the conversion was done sympathetically and in keeping with the Conservation Area. As yet there is no start date for the work but hopefully we will soon see this eyesore greatly improved.

These two former shops on the corner of Vicarage Lane have been empty for a considerable period. The former florist which corners Vicarage Lane is beginning to cause alarm to local residents due to the large crack in the side of the building. This part of the building is structurally unsafe. 284 Loughborough Road (adjacent to the florist was the subject of an unsuccessful planning application for conversion into residential use. We are concerned that any future development to this site will lead to the loss of the original shop frontage, the last in the area.

The Society has made many representation to the Council to encourage sympathetic restoration of this building. There is a chronic shortage of housing in Belgrave and we urge the Council to use compulsory purchase powers to return the building to use mainly as housing, as it has done elsewhere.

The former Belgrave Police Station which although lies just outside the Conservation Area is no less an important building in the history of the area and we strongly recommend that consideration be given to having the original structure listed and compelling the current owners to make the building secure and watertight.

In the medium term we hope that this building can be sympathetically developed, perhaps into flats bringing it back into use and preventing further decay.