Long-empty pub to be demolished for new flats
- Published
Plans to demolish a Bradford pub and build 48 apartments in its place have been approved.
The Prospect of Bradford on Bolton Road, which has been empty for two decades, will be flattened to make way for the new development of one, two and three-bed flats.
However, the scheme will not include any affordable housing.
The developers behind the plans argued providing low-cost housing would make the project “unviable”.
The empty pub has been subject to a number of planning proposals over recent years, many of which would see the existing building converted.
Some plans were refused while others never got past the planning stages.
Last year Horsforth-based The Funding Globe Ltd submitted an application to demolish the building and replace it with flats.
Those plans have this week been approved by planning officers, according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, external.
Five people had objected to the application, with some arguing the development would bring too much traffic to Bolton Road, and others saying the pub should be converted, not demolished.
Highways officers said the 37 parking spaces, including an undercroft parking area, were acceptable for a development of this size, on a main road with public transport links.
The development will include communal garden areas and shared roof terraces on the third and fourth floors.
For developments of this size, the council usually requires applicants to include an amount of affordable housing.
However, the applicants had sent the council a letter saying this would "render the development unviable, and prevent it being constructed".
It said: "Current factors affecting the project’s viability [are] the cost of borrowing, high interest rates, the cost of construction, labour and materials, and the relatively slow and low value of the local sales housing market."
Planners accepted this and approved the development.
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