TWO city centre mill buildings can be converted into “luxury residential apartments” after proposals to re-develop them were approved the second time around.

Garden Mills and Junction Mills, which stand on Thornton Road and are separated by a stretch of Bradford Beck, were once part of Bradford College, but are currently vacant.

This week a planning application to convert the buildings into 107 apartments, with a concierge and gym for each building was approved by Bradford Council.

However, the plans will not include any flats classed as affordable, usually a requirement of any housing schemes, as the developer successfully argued that due to the costs of developing the two buildings, including low cost homes would make the scheme “unviable.”

Garden Mills will be converted into 65 flats - nine studio flats, 36 one-bed flats, one two-bed apartment and 19 two bed duplexes. Junction Mills will be converted into 42 one bed flats.

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There will be no off street parking provided.

The plan had been submitted by Madison Investments and Bradford College, and the application said: “The concept is to raise the profile and standard of design to form luxury residential apartments that can be leased to both the public sectors and students that are eco friendly, efficient and sustainable. They will need to fulfil the city living residential ethos in order to attract good tenants.”

The applicants said a residential conversion was the only likely future for the building - pointing out the current glut of empty office space in the city centre. It says: “The ‘to let’ signs with affordable commercial/offices low rental rates have appeared all over Bradford city centre but this is still not attracting any long term commercial/office tenants in the city centre.

“For sale signs have been on both Garden Mills and Junction Mills for the last couple of years and little interest has been shown.

“This is mainly due to Victorian buildings having awkward sizes and shapes.”

A similar application to convert the buildings was refused earlier this year due to a lack of information on how residents will be impacted by air pollution on Thornton Road, details of any biodiversity works to the site or reasons why no affordable housing could be provided.

The application was re-submitted soon after with these required details.

Approved on Monday, planning officers said: “The units are small in size but it is aimed at city centre living where there is a tendency for the accommodation to be occupied by single people or couples and not families where larger units would be required.”

Referring to concerns about air pollution levels on Thornton Road, officers said one condition of the development should be that “mechanical ventilation” is provided for ground floor apartments at Junction Mills to “provide the future occupiers with an alternative to opening windows directly onto the busy street environment.”

Referring to the lack of parking, officers said: “While there is no off street parking associated with this site, there is ample on and off street public parking available nearby but there are existing parking controls on the local streets.”