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STORY

Plans for 14 apartments in former furniture store ‘to help provide needed city centre housing.’

Chemus Thornton: We need much more of this. The only way to save our City Centre is to diversify from retail and create a Night Time Economy where much more people live, work and socialise in the City Centre.

Andrew Morrell: We need more things where people can actually afford the rents, that also would help.

Skot Hudsoen: Good to see empty building being used and lived in. The city centre needs more of the same as retail/shops dwindle.

Jeff Smithson: I wonder who's going to be living there then.

Stephen Cullerton: Refugees and immigrants more likely.

Tony Swalwell: Not necessarily so. These apartments are designed with more living space and therefore above nominal rent. No prejudice!

Steven Stonehouse: Create a centre with a communal dinning hall and laundry and people can rent a room with ensuite.

Tanya Alderson: Give it a few months and they will announce its for students.

Elaine Johnson: We need more retail in the city.

Wendy Banks: Apartments that are not suitable for kids or pets.

Steven Stonehouse: You can do the same easier at the old orphanage by the Eye Infirmary.

Adam Jefferson: I doubt very much that anyone from Sunderland has ambitions to live in a flat above a shop in the city centre.

Tony Salwell: It will be retail on the ground floor. However the more people living in the city centre the bigger demand for retail. Business rates are presently prohibitive to most small retail businesses . Large companies with big turnover can afford to pay.

Paul Thompson: Seagulls for alarm clocks at 4am.