A PLAN to demolish a former vicarage in Warrington town centre and replace it with a six-storey apartment block is to be put to council planning chiefs on Thursday.
The scheme involves the demolition of the former Holy Trinity church vicarage in the Palmyra Square Conservation Area.
Currently vacant and boarded up, the vicarage is a two-storey building.
The new building would comprise 23 apartments, 17 one-bedroomed and six two bedroomed. All would be for affordable housing on a rent to buy basis.
A plan to demolish the vicarage and replace it with a five-storey building with a restaurant at ground floor level and 11 apartments above was refused in 2011.
Two other schemes involving replacing the vicarage with apartments were withdrawn in 2018 and 2019.
Warrington Borough Council planning officers are recommending the new scheme be approved. They say the design of the new building is considered to be of a high quality causing less than significant harm to nearby heritage assets, that harm being outweighed by the public benefits of the scheme.
But there have been four objections based on a loss of amenity for occupiers of adjacent buildings, increased parking problems enflaming existing tensions between local residents and businesses.
There are also concerns about proposals for waste collection from the front of a building in a conservation area.
Planning officers say the proposal is for residential development in a town centre location which is appropriate and makes efficient use of the site.
