Plans to redevelop fire-struck hall partly approved

Plans to restore a fire-ravaged stately home and build flats and houses in its grounds have been approved in part.

Fairline Homes wants to redevelop Overstone Hall, near Northampton, which has been derelict since a blaze in 2001 and suffered another fire in 2023.

Officials at West Northamptonshire Council had recommended the application for refusal, but councillors questioned if there were any other realistic prospects for salvaging the hall.

A Planning Committee meeting on Thursday approved an initial proposal to build 19 flats in the main body of the Grade II listed building.

Fairline Homes submitted three linked applications setting out how the Victorian mansion's facades could be repaired and retained, alongside the conversion of part of the main building into flats, as reported by the Local Democracy Reporting Service.

Some of the structure would be demolished, the company added.

It also sought permission to build 77 homes in the hall's gardens to help fund the project, as well as 57 flats in four blocks and a further 20 homes on land next to the hall.

Each application had received 95 objections from members of the public.

The developer's agent Peter Frampton said any other proposal was "simply unrealistic" and "wishful thinking", adding the hall had been broken into 67 times this year.

The council's planning officers recommended the applications' refusal, saying they would cause a high level of further harm to and resulting in loss of significance of the hall.

The first application to redevelop the hall into flats was approved in full, subject to the necessary listed building consent.

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