Compromise flats scheme for former bed store wins backing of city planners

PLANS TO convert a grand city centre building into flats can now go ahead, after the proposed developer agreed to retain some shop space.

Earlier this year plans to convert the former bed shop on Sunbridge Road, Bradford, into apartments was refused by the city council.

The application was to turn the ground floor and lower ground floor levels of the old Bedshop store into seven flats. Permission had already been granted for the apartment conversion of the upper floors.

Planning officers said the proposals would “harm to the vitality of the city centre through the loss of an active ground floor frontage and the loss of a retail use”.

The application was refused in June. A second application, for just five flats on the ground floor, was submitted shortly after, and would retain some retail use in the building.

That application has now been approved by council planners, who said: “The proposed development is considered to represent a reasonable compromise between the need to preserve the character and appearance of this important building within the City Centre Conservation Area and the need to revise its layout to introduce a range of new sustainable uses which will help to secure it for the longer term.”

The furniture store relocated to Keighley last year, bringing an end to its 45 years in the city centre.

At the time, branch manager Stuart Butterfield blamed a 50 per cent downturn in footfall in the city over five years. The building dates back to 1901.