The client here proposed a new children’s nursery on the edge of a local retail parade but within a residential area. The site had been used as a doctor’s clinic with flat above in the past but had since been laid empty for some years. We were able to demonstrate on appeal that the retention of the upper flat was both unfeasible and unsustainable, and that it’s ‘loss’ to provide for another essential local need (childcare) was justified in the circumstances of this site.