'Dilapidated' building can be turned into flats

The three-storey building, on Wenlock Street, has been vacant for years

A "dilapidated" building on the edge of Bradford city centre can be converted into flats, town planners have ruled.

The three-storey former office building on Wenlock Street, off Leeds Road, has been vacant for years, and its windows are currently either boarded up or smashed.

Earlier this year a planning application to convert the building into nine apartments was submitted to Bradford Council.

The plans have now been approved, with council officers saying the work would bring a prominent, derelict building back would be beneficial.

The flats would be a mix of one and two-bed properties and the development would include an area of outdoor amenity space for future residents, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

There would be one car parking space and nine cycle spaces on the basement area.

Planners said that the building lies within an employment zone, and losing office space to residential use in such areas would normally be blocked.

But in a report granting planning permission, they added: "The proposal is deemed to provide a good standard of residential accommodation and will bring a vacant and derelict former mill building close to the city centre back into a viable use though the provision of nine spacious self-contained apartments."

"Given the dilapidated condition of the building currently the external changes will improve the appearance of the building and also that of the street scene and wider area."

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