6. Soham Conservation Area - East Cambridgeshire District Council

properties. It is proposed to remove all these properties from the
conservation area except those that front the main road, Hall/Pratt
Street in order to maintain a continuous built frontage.
11.1.2 No.7 Station Road, Staploe Mews (High Street) and Nos.6-30 (evens)
Brook Dam Lane are also modern infill developments off Churchgate /
High Street which lack the character of the surrounding traditional
properties. It is therefore proposed to remove these buildings from the
conservation area.
12 Enhancement Opportunities
12.1 Many properties in the village have had their original timber windows
and doors replaced in modern materials such as PVCu or in modern
styles, often changing the vertical/horizontal emphasis of the buildings’
elevations in the process. Owners of these properties should be
encouraged to reinstate traditional fenestration patterns and materials.
The District Council may seek to make ‘Article 4(2) Directions’ to retain
traditional detailing on the exterior of non-listed buildings within the
conservation areas, where such details have not already been lost.
12.2 Red Lion Square is little more than a traffic junction with the War
Memorial sitting in an island at the intersection with High Street. The
plastic traffic bollards around the Memorial are inappropriate to the
setting for this listed monument. In order to create a more pedestrian
friendly space and improve the setting of the Memorial, the ‘island’ or
pavements could be enlarged and the traffic bollards removed or
replaced in a more appropriate design.
12.3 There are many good traditional shop fronts along the High Street and
Churchgate Street, but there are also some poor modern ones.
Shopkeepers should be encouraged to use materials and designs
appropriate to the building, replacing inappropriate signage and shop
fronts and retaining good shop fronts wherever possible.
12.4 A number of the shop units and/or the floors above them are vacant.
Where the retail use is still viable, but only on the ground floor,
residential use above will be actively encouraged. However, if a retail
use for the property is no longer feasible (a fact which will have to be
robustly proven) any elements of an original or appropriate shop front
should be retained in the conversion to alternative use.
12.5 The forecourts of the funeral directors, No.23 Hall Street and No.50
High Street are both open tarmac areas with no, or poor, front
boundaries, whilst the front of the Old Grammar School on Churchgate
Street is littered with cars in differing states of disuse. All these areas
could benefit from more appropriate treatments such as soft
landscaping and the reinstatement of front boundary walls or railings.
12.6 The Market Street garage sites and No.43 High Street offer
redevelopment opportunities and the chance to enhance these areas of
45