Council rejects couple's bid to turn former East Lothian bank into 'dream home'

Councillors have rejected a retired couple’s bid to build a “dream home” on the site of a former bank hall in East Lothian after describing the price paid for it as “excessive“.

Pat Sharp and her husband Nigel bought a former bank building on Westgate, North Berwick, seven years ago for more than £550,000 after it was put on the market by the Royal Bank of Scotland.

The move was intended to allow them to retire to an accessible home for Nigel, who was diagnosed with Parkinson’s Disease, with their granddaughters.

However, East Lothian Council has repeatedly rejected plans to change it into a house, saying it was an unacceptable loss of a commercial property in the town centre.

A meeting of the council’s Local Review Body rejected an appeal against the latest refusal for planning permission despite claims from the applicants that attempts to market it as a commercial site had proved unsuccessful.

Mrs Sharp last month told the Local Democracy Reporting Service how she and her husband hoped to create a home in the town where they had honoured their daughter Cheryl’s memory with holidays with her daughters over the years.

Following their daughter’s death, they bought a flat in North Berwick, which became a favourite place for the girls, and hoped to retire to the town.

Pat believed the bank hall was the perfect opportunity to create an accessible home for Nigel who could no longer manage the stairs and she said while the price paid was over double the asking price, other bids had come close to their offer such was the demand for the building.

Sadly for Pat and Nigel, who is 78, his condition has now deteriorated to the point that he has had to move into a care home to receive the support he needs.

Pat said: “He has been robbed of the chance to spend his final years in what we wanted to be our dream home, looking out over the North Berwick coast and remembering all our wonderful times here. It is devastating.”

Local Review Body councillors were unconvinced by the argument that the building was not attracting interest from commercial buyers.

Councillor Donna Collins told colleagues: “I know personally of three offers that were made for those premises when it went up for sale the last time. I know personally two of the people who submitted offers that were refused because their offers were from individual valuers of the building and not the excessive amount that was put forward, so there is interest there, but not at the inflated price.”

Councillor Kenny McLeod said: “I echo the concerns addressed by my colleague Councillor Collins and the excessive amount that was paid.”

Councillors were told the district valuer had valued the property at £300,000 as a commercial venture which could go up to £415,000 if it was granted permission to become residential.

An independent valuation for the owners by Shepherd placed it at £500,000 for a commercial unit going up as high as £1million if it was turned into a home.

The review body unanimously rejected the appeal.