Chorley Magistrates Court resi transformation approved
Say goodbye to the 1960s concrete block, due to make way for a 12-storey apartment block after councillors voted in favour of developer Walker & Williams’ plans.
Chorley Council’s planning committee met on Tuesday to deliberate over the application to construct 52 apartments and 2,700 sq ft of ground floor commercial space on the site of the vacant Magistrates Court building off St Thomas Road in Chorley.
The scheme was met with favourably following years of discussion between the developer, planner PWA Planning, and the council’s planning department.
“Our application followed detailed pre-application discussions with planning officers that commenced three years ago to ensure we were able to arrive at a scheme that could finally deliver a viable use for the former magistrates court site,” said Dan Hughes, planning director for PWA Planning.
“The proposed development will provide a landmark building in support of the council’s regeneration plans for the town centre, as well as delivering much-needed open market homes in Chorley that will be desirable because of their town centre location.”
The approved apartment building has been designed by architect FWP. It includes a mixture of one-, two-, and three-bed flats, as well as a roof terrace. The approved plans feature two accessible parking spaces and a covered cycle store.
With planning permission in hand, Max Walker-Williams of Walker & Williams shared his next steps.
“We’re proud to be bringing forward this high-quality scheme of apartments that will provide new town centre living opportunities for Chorley,” he said.
“Our thanks to the whole project team for their determination and dedication in helping us get this planning approval over the line.
“We’re now looking forward to progressing to the next stage and securing a development partner and getting the scheme moving.”
In addition to FWP and PWA Planning, the project team includes E3P, S106 Management, REFORD Consulting Engineers, Batworker Ecological Consultancy, Chris O’Flaherty, PSA Design, and Urban Green Space.
You can peruse the application by searching reference number 24/01113/FULMAJ on Chorley Council’s planning portal.
Another piece of history vandalised.
By Anonymous
Good ol’ greenwashing!
By Anonymous
Its an absolute disgrace, the so-called ‘Heritage Statement’ is severely lacking. Chorley living up to its usual modus operandi of making terrible planning decisions.
By Anonymous
Razed Julia? This is Chorley not Manhattan!
By Salford Fred
Say “goodbye” to access to justice and “hello” to Court delays.
By Anonymous
Seems some of those commenting are as vacant as the premises in question themselves..
By Anonymous
Ridiculous ! Totally out of keeping with surrounding buildings .
By Anonymous
Looks like we are losing the car park as well as looking out of place with the surrounding buildings.
By Anonymous
Good. A modern block, built where the residents have everything they need – including public transport – within an easy walk, all at the cost of demolishing one crumbling derelict building. Much better than concreting over more greenbelt to build a hundred, identical car-dependent redbricks.
By Anonymous
2 parking spaces??
By Anonymous
Statement says 12 storey block and yet the artist impression is only 9 storeys . The whole building will dwarf nearby terraced houses.
By Anonymous
I don’t think this is in keeping with Chorley’s market town image. Will
this set off a precedent of building taller and taller buildings
By Anonymous
Why on earth would you want to build it twelve stories high in the middle of a traditional market town? It will look out of place and incongruous next to the town hall. Surely a better plan would be to rip down the police station at the same time and develop the whole area for, residential use, in lower level buildings, say 5 or 6 stories high similar to the Sumner building a cross from the police station. I get that the council are running scared of Michael Goves intervention but to go up so hight instead of looking at other options is just plain foolish and will leave a really ugly, dominant stain in Chorley.
By Andrew
It’s a good idear only if it means the police station is part of the development when it moves and the court yard is kept.
I understand about heritage but at moment wasn’t this earmarked years ago
By Susan
Why not Chocago; we already have Manchattan
By Louis Sullivan