THE future of two 'heritage' buildings in Boscombe and Pokesdown has taken another turn.

The Planning Inspectorate has considered appeals, relating to the Victorian warehouse at 3 Wickham Road and the former Boscombe Manor Medical Centre building at 40 Florence Road, against planning permission refusals by Bournemouth council planning board last year.

In both cases the applicants have been able to secure permission to demolish the buildings via permitted development rights, despite having their applications refused.

And the inspectorate concluded that the buildings' informal 'local listing' as non-designated heritage assets under the as-yet unadopted Boscombe and Pokesdown Neighbourhood Plan provided no protection.

It also noted "missed opportunities" to give the buildings formal protection.

The inspectorate dismissed two appeals by European Emerging Markets Ltd for 3 Wickham Road as it ruled the applicant had failed to demonstrate the "unashamedly industrial" property was unviable for commercial use.

The firm had applied both to demolish the building and construct a block of 10 flats, and separately to convert the building into nine flats.

"I must bear in mind that there is no protection for the building as it stands," the inspectorate report states.

"Prior approval has already been granted for the demolition and I cannot ignore the realistic possibility that this course of action would be taken in the event of the appeal being dismissed.

"Whilst I attach some limited weight to the harm arising from the demolition of the building, and more particularly its façade, the fallback position means that the appeal does not turn on this issue."

Meanwhile, Holton Homes had its appeal for 40 Florence Road upheld. There, the company wanted to build a block of nine flats.

Again, the inspectorate said informal listing was inadequate to protect the building from demolition, noting in its report: "There have been a number of missed opportunities to locally list the building – when the council considered earlier planning applications to redevelop the site for example, and again when the most recent planning permission expired."

The report concludes: "I can appreciate that the loss of the existing building will come as a great disappointment to the local community.

"However, on balance and taking all factors into account I consider that the harm is outweighed by the benefits."

Both the Neighbourhood Plan steering group and Bournemouth Civic Society called for the buildings to be protected, and the latter has called for the council to use a regulation called an ‘Article 4 direction’ to protect all informal 'heritage' assets in the borough.

In response to this, earlier this year, Andrew England, council head of planning, said "it is clear from national guidance that the use of such orders should only be in exceptional cases".