Preston set to approve more than 250 homes
The city council’s planning committee will meet next Thursday to decide the outcome of Preston’s Harris Institute, two apartment blocks at The Sumners, an older person’s village, and an office-to-residential conversion.
Harris Institute
- Application reference number: 06/2024/0489
An application from Harris Investment Group to change the use of Preston’s grade two star-listed Harris Institute and the adjacent Regent House from an educational facility to a cultural hub is tipped for approval by city council planning officers.
Built in 1849, the Harris Institute has been vacant in recent years and the building has been deteriorating as a result.
Plans from Studio John Bridge Architects indicate the basement would see its 10 rooms slightly altered to create a coworking space across the floor.
At the ground floor level, a café, a shop, and a gallery would be installed in the main front rooms of the building.
An existing amphitheatre on the building’s lower ground floor would be renovated and used as a performance space.
The Harris Institute’s top floor hosts large rooms that would be converted into a dance studio and events spaces.
A rooftop balcony has been proposed but not yet fully assessed.
Nearby Regent House would be turned into nine holiday lets, with six single and three duplex apartments for temporary stays as part of the proposals.
The project team includes Gately Smithers Purlow Heritage Specialists, Eden Planning, The QS Company, ERAP, and Peninsular Acoustics.
London House will turn a vacant office block into flats. Credit: via planning documents
London House
- Application reference number: 06/2024/0513
Plans for an office building’s transformation into a six-storey, 71-flat block on Primrose Hill in Preston have been recommended for approval.
Planning consultant Cassidy + Ashton submitted the application on behalf of Retail Revive.
The 1970s office block in question is vacant and would require a six-storey extension to its north, as well as a single-storey roof extension to the existing office block.
Flats would comprise a mix of studio, one- and two-bed apartments.
The project team includes PSA Design, Beech Jackson Partnership, and Bowland Ecology.
The Sumners
- Application reference number: 06/2022/0715
PWA Planning has applied for outline permission to construct two apartment blocks, which would see 85 apartments erected off Watling Street Road in Fulwood.
The decision has been recommended for approval subject to S106 conditions.
The taller of the two blocks would be five storeys and contain 51 apartments. The shorter of the two would be four storeys with 34 flats.
Across both blocks, there would be 54 one-bed and 31 two-bed flats.
Proposals indicate that the taller building would be solely occupied by over-55s. Its internal communal spaces have been designed to take advantage of sunlight and the views from the block.
There would be car parking for up to 69 vehicles.
Norr Architects is leading on the design for the apartments, building upon work done by EMC Architects.
Land to the west of Preston Road
- Application reference number: 06/2024/0495
An application from Applethwaite to construct 48 bungalows for over-55s and a 72-bedroom care home has been recommended for approval.
Conditions of the decision require the scheme to provide financial contributions towards employment skills monitoring. Smith & Love Planning Consultants was the planning consultant for the project.
The scheme, designed by Cassidy + Ashton would be built on a 12-acre site off Preston Road in Grimsargh.
Of the bungalows, there would be a mix of 22 two-beds, 22 three-beds, and four single-bed homes, each bungalow will have a rear garden.
The scheme has been made exempt from the 35% affordable homes requirement due to a Cushman and Wakefield financial viability appraisal deeming it not commercially viable.
The 72-bed care home will span two floors, all rooms would have ensuites. A kitchen, communal lounges, a games room, a cinema room, a private bar, and a library all would feature.
Rooms on the ground floor would have patio doors that would open to a shared garden space.
