We had previously attained planning permission for nine dwellings on the adjacent site for the same client and one of their former office buildings was now redundant and the obvious option was to convert the building to residential use. However the building was located within an area where adopted planning policies looked to retain the building in commercial. The risk was that the council would want the building to be marketed for continued commercial use before residential use was allowed.
RCC however considered that the nature of the building and the developments that had gone around the site over the years meant that a strong case could be made to support the change of use without the need to market the property first.
We were delighted when permission was achieved within the normal timescales.
