Apartments approved amid conservation concerns

A new apartment block is to be built in Preston city centre in spite of concerns about its height.

Town hall planners have given the go-ahead to the residential development on Fox Street, where it will replace an empty shop.

While the building will be only six storeys tall, officials placed a question mark over its suitability for a site within the Winckley Square Conservation Area.   However, they concluded that the benefits of the blueprint outweighed any damage it would do to the historic location.

The block will contain 19 flats, along with a new retail unit on the ground floor.  The plot is currently occupied by the now vacant Christian Resource Centre, which traded for more than four decades before its closure three years ago.

Blackburn-based Marana Developments suggested in its application that its proposal would bridge the height difference on the street between the former St Wilfrid’s school building and the Premier Inn – helping to reduce the “stark contrast” that exists at present.   The firm also said that the apartments would obscure “the ugly blank elevation” of the neighbouring hotel, which currently towers over the site.

However, Preston City Council planning officers said in a report assessing the scheme that blocking out that side wall should not be one of the “primary aims” of any new building in the location.   They added that the scale of the proposed block “incrementally brings a similar, inappropriate scale further into the conservation area”.

Nevertheless, the authority considered that the apartments would result in “less than substantial harm” to the spot, whose appearance had changed significantly since the 1950s.   It came to the same conclusion about the impact of the development on listed buildings in the vicinity – including St Wilfrid’s, the Central Methodist Church and the former Corn Exchange.

“The proposal would deliver social and economic benefits by providing 19 new homes in an accessible location in the city centre…to meet the needs of present and future generations,” the report said.

It continued: “The [plans] will redevelop an underutilised brownfield site …[and] make effective use of land.

“In balancing the harm against the public benefits, the ‘less than substantial harm’ to the designated heritage assets must be given great weight – and in this case the public benefits that flow from the proposed development can be given favourable weight, resulting in a positive balance for the proposed development.”