Swindon planning applications approved and refused this week

Swindon Advertiser
,
Aled Thomas

STRATTON ST MARGARET: Visitors to the building currently used by Poundstretcher at St Margaret Retail Park in Oxford Road could be doing a different kind of stretching soon.

Charles Lunnon of Paloma Capital has been given the okay for the unit to be used a s a gym.

The plans show a main gymnasium and a spinning studio.

OLD TOWN: The offices behind both a listed 18th century façade and a modern one will be converted into flats.

But the listed front of the building – one of the best in Old Town – will not be affected.

IT company Appsbroker owns the buildings at 1 and 2 The Square in Old Town, opposite the crumbling Corn Market building.

The company has been given permission to convert the standard open plan office layout inside the single building into 14 flats.

From the outside the offices look very different – one half of the façade is an elegant late 18th century building, and the other a much more modern building from the 1980s.

The company’s application says: “The proposal will revitalise this part of Swindon, in need of uplifting, and accommodate the needs of the town.

“This is an opportunity for rejuvenation which will be sympathetic with the historic character of the area.

“The design knits into the existing urban fabric which promotes a redevelopment that is harmonized with its current environment and can be implemented with minimum disruption to the existing life of the town.”

Swindon Borough Council’s decision to approve the plan says: “The proposed development retains the façade and the remaining part of the east gable wall.

“The only alterations are internal and affect the modern fabric only, which is of no historic or architectural significance. The significance of the listed building, would be unaffected as there are no proposed alterations to the front façade, which is the only area of the listed building, which is of any historic or architectural interest.”

CHENEY MANOR: An empty warehouse unit which has not been used for several years can be divided up into different units and even used as shops. Fish Brothers Swindon, which owns a number of car businesses has been given permission to divide unit 103, Unit 3 on Cheney Manor  Industrial Estate into 12 units and for those units to be used for storage, business or retail.

TOWN CENTRE: A developer’s ambitious plans to put two extra storeys on top of a three-storey office block has not been approved.

Developer S Bhatia who is from Feltham in Middlesex had lodged a proposal with the council to build seven flats in another two floors to be built on the block at 93-95 Commercial Road, currently used by an estate agent. The flats would be three one-bed flats and four with two bedrooms.

The ‘prior approval’ he had asked for was not given because of the height of the building if it had been extended. Mr Bhatia is still able to make a full application for planning consent

EXTENSIONS: Applications have been lodged to build extensions to houses, or outbuildings or to convert garages, sheds and lofts into habitable rooms at: 2 Manor Park, South Marston; 6 Mayflower Road, Covingham; 125 Wheeler Avenue, Stratton St Margaret; 79 The Mall, Old Town; 9 Draycot Road, Chiseldon; 30 Seaton Close, Haydon Wick; 4 Greenwood Grove, Taw Hill; 163 Kingshill Road, Kingshill; 58 The Mall, Old Town; 24 Ferrers Drive, Grange Park; 25 Dunbar Road, Wroughton and 79 Beckhampton Street, Central.