Plan to turn last remaining retail space in city centre building into flats

Yahoo

6 days ago

A CONSERVATION area building in Bradford city centre could become almost entirely residential if new plans are approved.
111-117 Sunbridge Road, the former Bed Shop store, has been converted into flats, but retains a ground-floor shop space.
Now, a planning application has been submitted to convert the building's last remaining retail space into two one-bed flats, one measuring 39 square metres and the other 41 square metres.
The application, submitted by Rajan Gupta, of Medipharm Bradford Ltd, says: 'The lower section of the shopfront will have privacy film to the inner face of the glazing. This will provide privacy for occupants without changing the overall appearance of the building.
"Our proposal will provide much-needed additional housing within the city centre, which will add to the vitality of the area, and also bring an unused section of this building of interest within the Goitside Conservation Area back into full use.
'The building was previously marketed for rent as a shop unit, without any interest for many years."
The application said its "continuing vacant use has led to the building looking not at its best, with posters etc. being plastered over the shopfront, which detract from the overall look of the building, as do the existing solid shutters".
It added: 'The new use will enable the building to fulfil its potential and improve the street scene within this area of the city.'
In 2018 an application to convert the entire building into flats was refused by Bradford Council.
Officers at that time said: "The application proposes to remove a retail use from this property which is within the defined boundary of Bradford city centre.
"In the absence of any information to indicate otherwise, the proposal would result in harm to the vitality of the city centre through the loss of an active ground floor frontage and the loss of a retail use."
Since then, plans to turn much of the building into flats have been approved – but on the condition that some ground-floor space remained in retail use, which planners argued was important for the city centre building.
Officers described those plans as 'a reasonable compromise between the need to preserve the character and appearance of this important building within the City Centre Conservation Area and the need to revise its layout to introduce a range of new sustainable uses which will help to secure it for the longer term".
Planners will decide whether the building's final remaining retail space can be converted into flats in the coming weeks.