Plans for apart-hotel recommended for approval

Town centre offices which have been empty since 2018 look set to finally secure planning permission for redevelopment after previous attempts have failed.

Proposals to convert the former Jobcentre on the corner of Queen Street and Abingdon Street in Blackpool into an apart-hotel are being recommended for approval when they go before the council’s Planning Committee on April 1.

Previous attempts to redevelop the building into residential flats have been refused after attracting objections including from the neighbouring Galleon Bar, whose owner warned his business could be at risk if residents subsequently complained about noise from the nightspot which has a 4am licence.

The latest application attracted 66 objections, including the same fears over noise. Some objectors drew comparisons with the Night and Day music venue in Manchester which was served with a noise abatement notice after flats were built next door and residents complained to the council.

But 77 comments in support of the Queen Street application have also been received, with people backing the investment which will re-use an empty building and bring holiday-makers to the town centre.

Town hall planners have recommended the scheme is approved but with a number of conditions, including around the installation of measures to protect guests at the proposed apartments from possible noise.

Documents assessing the application add the council’s Environmental Protection team do not object providing noise mitigation conditions are attached, and would be unlikely to pursue noise complaints from holiday accommodation “in the same way as permanent residential properties.”

The scheme would see the three-storey former employment offices converted into 22 holiday apartments, with a manager’s office, laundry room and luggage store and a staffed reception area. There would be 12 car parking spaces.

Guests would check in at the hotel reception and be given keys to their apartments, the site would have CCTV and noise monitoring, and there would be arrangements for tackling antisocial behaviour.

Each unit would contain at least one bedroom, a bathroom and a living room-kitchen-diner.

Documents submitted with the application say the scheme seeks to bring “the building back into use as high quality managed self-contained holiday accommodation within the town centre.”

The building has been empty since 2018 when Jobcentre staff were relocated to premises at the Town Hall.