THE developers behind a proposed city centre flats scheme say the work could help improve an area of Bradford they say is currently “unappealing and threatening".
The Goitside Conservation Area is a section of the city centre dating back to the 1800s, and at the city’s industrial height it was dominated with mills and warehouses.
Many of those buildings remain, but are in a poor condition, and several regeneration schemes proposed for the area in recent years have failed to materialise.
A planning application to convert one building in the Conservation Area, 126 Thornton Road, into apartments and a ground-floor shop, was recently submitted to Bradford Council by Usman Akbar.
The development would see the building, a warehouse with a furniture store on the ground floor, divided into nine flats. The ground floor shop unit would be refurbished and retained.
Dormer windows would be installed on the building’s roof.
There would be six one-bed flats and three two-bed flats.
Last year an application to turn the neighbouring building into eight flats, and for the ground floor to be converted into a shop, was approved by planning officers.
Work on that development is currently underway.
The new application highlights the issues facing the area, and claims developments like the planned conversion could have a domino effect, encouraging further development.
Referring to the Goitside area, the application says: “Poor economic climate, which has led to redundancy and neglect, particularly the Goitside, has left much of the floorspace within the conservation area redundant.
“Many of the buildings within the conservation area are characterised by broken and boarded up windows and doors, rotting timberwork and in severe cases loss of roofing materials.
“This is aesthetically unappealing, even threatening, and could eventually lead to the demise of some buildings.
“Investment and grant aid investment needs to be encouraged into the Goitside.
“Finding the buildings a productive use would ensure their upkeep and guarantee them a future, as well as improve the amenity of the whole area.
“The vision is to create a mixed-use area to ensure that it has a 24-hour life.”
On the plans for the new flats, the application says the conversion will “encourage investment and renovation work to take place on the other vacant properties in the local area".
A decision on the planning application is expected in the near future.
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