A new plan has been put forward to knock down and replace a long-empty block of flats in Ross-on-Wye.

The three-storey Riverview Flats in Wye Street within Ross-on-Wye’s conservation area has been uninhabited since 2016, and is now “in a very poor state of repair” according to a new application for planning permission (number 240015) by Gloucestershire developer DP Rollings.

The early-1970s building, made up of four two-bedroom flats on the first and second storeys with the ground floor used for car parking, was anyway “of a poor quality and of no architectural merit”, a statement with the application says.

A previous application by the company was refused in March 2021, then an appeal dismissed by a government inspector a year later, due in part to the scale of the proposed new four-storey block.

But while its new plan would still be of four storeys, the design “has been simplified and its scale reduced such that it no longer competes with the adjacent listed buildings”, the design statement says.

Mainly built of brick, the new building would amount to “a modern and contemporary interpretation of the context” of the town, rather than being of traditional design.

The master bedroom, dining and sitting areas of the six two-bedroom flats would face to the front, “to benefit from the views to the River Wye and late afternoon and evening sun”.

As at present the ground-floor would be used for parking, and for “a large void to accommodate bats”, the statement adds.

Comments on the planning application can be made until January 29.