New houses behind Foley Arms in Malvern set to begin soon

Elevate won permission to build behind the Foley Arms in the centre of Malvern in July last year, but despite more than a year passing, work has yet to commence.

According to Elevate and documents from Malvern Hills District Council, despite the work being approved at a meeting on June 30 last year, planning permission was only given in full at the end of May this year.

With the customary gap of six weeks in which no work takes place - so any land disputes can be resolved - this means work is still to start.

PLANS: How the homes behind the Foley Arms could appear. Pic. Elevate (Image: NQ)

A spokesperson for Malvern Hills District Council confirmed there had been a delay to issuing planning permission while the associated Section 106 agreements were finalised.

It is not unusual for applications with a legal agreement to take a while to be finalised due to negotiating the terms and then the requirement for all interested parties to be signatories.

The Section 106 agreement was completed in May and the issuing of the formal decision followed immediately after that.

Despite the delays, an Elevate spokesperson confirmed the work was due to start in early-2023.

They said: "Planning permission was granted in May this year and work is expected to start on site in the first half of 2023.

"This will follow the completion of discussions on our developer contributions to the local community which includes upgrading a zebra crossing on the Worcester Road to make it safer for local residents."

Work had been delayed earlier this year due to a strip of land in the entrance to the site.

The strip of land was owned by Malvern Hills District Council, who later sold the land to Elevate in order for work to begin.

Since then, however, the site has remained untouched save for some branding for the new development, which would include 11 houses and six flats.

SITE: The land to the rear of the Foley Arms in Malvern

The use of the area changed in the 1990s with the building of the Somerfields (now Wilko) shop and associated car park and, in 1999, the opening of the Waitrose store with the changes to the road pattern off Graham Road and the introduction of traffic lights.

In 2010, the Foley Arms Hotel was sold to Wetherspoons but the car park was kept under private ownership.

In 2014, Travelodge put forward plans for a 40-bedroom hotel with adjacent apartments, four shops and some parking spaces.

Although the proposal was considered by the District Council, it did not proceed partly because the plan was considered to be over-development and partly because of the financial problems with the company at the time.