13-STOREY BLOCK OF FLATS SET TO RECEIVE GO-AHEAD
City centre car park will go
PLANS to build a massive 13-storey block of flats in the city centre are set to be approved.
The development – due to be named Glassworks – will include 222 flats as well as parking, a gym and a communal lounge.
It will require the demolition of a wholesale florists currently on the site which sits between Glass Street and Hillchurch Street, in Hanley.
The development will also swallow up the Glass Street car park.
The planning application states: “The proposed form of the buildings is split into two distinct blocks, with separate access points along Hillchurch Street and Glass Street.
“The blocks are positioned in an L-shape allowing the formation of a landscaped residents’ courtyard to the west, which allows for good daylight penetration from midday until the late evening.
“A large secure internal courtyard to the west provides external amenity space for the residents, along with two external terraces on the upper-most floor.
“The L-shaped plot facing onto Hillchurch Street is currently occupied by a wholesale florists, which occupies a large single-storey steel-framed industrial shed.”
The proposed development will be made up of 69 two-bed flats and 153 one-bedroom apartments.
It will be managed by Empire Property Concepts with the accommodation targeted at ‘young professionals, graduates and smaller households’.
Members of Stoke-on-trent City Council’s planning committee will consider the application at a meeting today.
Council planners are not concerned about the loss of Glass Street car park.
The planning report states: “The proposal would result in the redevelopment of a brownfield site within the city centre and would significantly boost the delivery of a variety of market homes on previously developed land.
“The pay-and-display car park has temporary planning permission only and given its temporary nature does not offer a particularly high standard of facility given its uneven surfacing and low timber rail boundaries.
“Given the limited car parking provision at the site, it is anticipated that the loss of the car park could be accommodated by existing parking provision throughout the city.”