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Live Urban Two Ltd
All of the building formerly used as the hotel but excluding the 20th century detached building in the rear car park.
The modern 20th century extensions are being demolished and any vacant outbuildings. The black and white timber parts visible from St Andrew’s Street will remain. The black and white wing along St Andrew’s Road is to be demolished.
It is a privately owned building so the legal and financial responsibility to maintain the building lies with the owners.
Wychavon’s conservation officers and South Worcestershire Building Control officers have been carrying out regular monitoring visits to the site to check on the condition of the building. We have legal powers to intervene if we believe it is not being properly maintained or there is a safety risk to the public.
Local councillors and officers have also been pushing the owner to start work on the redevelopment for some time to help protect the building.
Following an incident on 24, September 2024 where guttering and debris fell into the road, we carried out an urgent inspection.
This found the conditions posed risks to the public, so we issued a notice under the Building Act, ordering the owner to carry out urgent repair work. They did not do this in the specified time and so we obtained a court order to carry out the necessary work and then recover the costs from the owner.
Please read our media statement for more information. Wychavon steps in to secure Raven Hotel - Wychavon District Council
We have undertaken all scaffolding and additional propping works to secure the infrastructure and to make the building safe to remove any immediate risk to the public.
This was identified in the recent court order. Work to make the roof watertight to protect the building from further weather damage, also covered by the court order, is ongoing. We don’t currently have a completion date for this.
It is a private building and so the powers we have to interfere with someone else’s property are limited.
Where we can step in, we have to first demonstrate we have given the owner ample opportunity to fix the problems themselves.
The circumstances we can act in are limited and the threshold for action high. We have been negotiating and pushing the owner to get on with the redevelopment of the building for some time.
We have Building Control powers in relation to public safety and a variety of Conservation powers to protect a listed building.
All of these powers come with strict conditions that must be met before we are able to use them and they only allow us to do certain things, such as order specific repairs to stop the condition of a building deteriorating or to ensure public safety.
We have no powers to force anyone to develop anything or to just carry out general work not connected to a specific purpose.
We have been pushing the owners for some time to get on with the development. We have no legal powers to force them to start work.
We are currently exploring what options are available to us before making a decision on any further action.
Issuing a Compulsory Purchase Order is a complex process involving approval by a government minister. The threshold for action is high and we have to be certain we are justified in doing it otherwise it could end up in a lengthy and costly legal argument. We also have to be sure it would deliver value for money for the taxpayer.
Read more about the Compulsory Purchase Order process on the Government’s website.
A s106 agreement has been entered into requiring the owner to pay certain sums of money associated with the development.
The sums to be paid relate to affordable housing, sport, open space, active travel, footpath works and community travel and can only be spent for the purposes that they are taken for.
It is a listed building and so, under Government rules, no business rates are payable when it is empty.
We don’t own the site and so it’s not for us to say what should and shouldn’t happen with it. Our role as a planning authority is to just assess and determine the plans presented to us, which we have done.
This is ultimately a question for the owner, but we are not aware the building is being actively marketed for sale.
