Reading through the tweets, the reason for refusal seems to be primarily a heritage/cultural reasond.
There will probably be an appeal and I wouldn't be surprised if, in the eyes of an impartial inspector, that was successful. Potentially, public opinion has swayed the commitee, despite that...
Well, initially the developer will be constructing the new building to meet the the minimum requirements for the commercial use (which look to be 10 dB better than the minimum building regs requirements for resi to resi). I think this seems fine for the proposed commercial use (but I think...
Any change of use would be under 'The Town and Country Planning (General Permitted Development) (England) (Amendment) Order 2016. This states:
“O.2 - (1) Development under Class O is permitted subject to the condition that before beginning the development, the developer must apply to the local...
That's not strictly true, it would still be subject to the approval of BHCC that noise from the venue would not impact the intended occupiers of the development.
Anyone got a link to the BHCC planning app, will make a robust representation against. I'm aware of the specific issues (agent of change / permitted development) so will should be useful.