Plans have been put forward to convert the first floor above a convenience store into apartments in Westhoughton.

The plans, put to Bolton Council just last month, will see the conversion of an existing vacant first floor into four apartments above an existing commercial unit, Co-Op, at 34-40 Market Street.

If approved the plans will see new market housing with up to four apartments created with three of them including two bedrooms and one of them being a studio with the kitchen, lounge area and bedroom all being in one room with a separate toilet.

Three of the flats will include kitchen and lounge areas, two bedrooms and a bathroom.

Within the plans it is stated there will be no parking set to removed or added which is a cause for concern for town councillors.

Cllr David Wilkinson on behalf of Westhoughton Town Council provided a comment within the planning application for the flats to be refused due to parking concerns.

The comment states: “Recommended for refusal on the grounds of insufficient information on parking facilities.

“Although Government planning policy indicates town centre uses are acceptable, members were concerned because the town centre already suffers from parking issues.”

However, Highways have stated there are ‘no reasonable objections on highway grounds to what is being proposed under this application’.

The plans state that the site is not within an area at risk of flooding and the surface water will be disposed of within the main sewer and by soakaway.

In regard to biodiversity and geological conservation, the plans state there are no protected or priority species, no conservation importance and there will be areas included to store and aid the collection of waste.

For the information on the plans, access the Bolton Planning Portal here and enter planning application number 16211/23.

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