Plans to convert former job centre and Grantham Journal offices into flats are recommended for approval

Officers have recommended that plans to convert the former job centre in Grantham into 12 flats should be approved.

South Kesteven District Council’s planning committee will meet next Thursday (August 24) to discuss plans to turn St Peter’s House into 12 flats.

The application, submitted by M&M Willett Homes Ltd, has been recommended for approval by officers, subject to conditions.

The proposal, if successful, would change the four-storey office building in St Peter’s Hill into 12 flats, eight of which would have two bedrooms, while the other four would have one bedroom each.

The building was most recently used as offices, and previously housed the Journal offices between 2013 and 2018.

It is now vacant and a recent search has failed to find any interested occupants.

The application described the changes to the building as a “no-parking development”, adding that the plans respond to “an identified need for low-cost entry-level accommodation within the town centre area”.

One of the recommended conditions for approval is recommended by Lincolnshire County Council highways, who were consulted on the proposal.

The condition states that the development cannot be occupied before works are completed to improve the public highway by providing “an uncontrolled tactile crossing” on the junction at Avenue Road, Elmer Street South and St Peter’s Hill.

The reasoning behind this condition is “to ensure the provision of safe and adequate means of access to the permitted development”.

Another proposed condition of approval is a financial contribution from the developer of £7,480 to the NHS to support the operation of local services.

The officer’s report also addressed the absence of on-site parking provision for residents, stating that “the sustainable location” of the property and “related accessibility to other forms of transport, shops and services” place the application in alignment with planning policy.

St Peter’s House dates back to the 1960s and its architecture is described as “somewhat brutal” in the planning application.