Bolton: Fresh plan for vacant St George's Road housing

The space on St George’s Road, not far from the Market Place shopping centre on the northern side of the town centre has until recently been used as a house of multiple occupancy.

But plans put before Bolton Council last week could see it transformed into a new training centre office for a medical company.

A statement from the authority’s highways and engineering department said: “Acting on the town centre sustainable location and the extant uses associated with the premises then there are no reasonable objections on highway grounds to what is being proposed under this application.”

The plans were put before Bolton Council (Image: ABODE)

If approved the scheme will see the St George’s Road site transformed so that it not only has new offices on the ground floor and basement levels, but also bedrooms on the first and second floor.

The proposal states that five people are expected to work full time at the newly converted training office.

The house of multiple occupancy, which has until now occupied the area, has been vacant since around mid-December last year.

St George's Road, Bolton (Image: Google Maps)

This kind of housing has long been controversial across Bolton and has provoked a range of responses to proposals to create HMOs at various locations across the borough.

In some cases, proposals have been approved with town hall officials having cited the new for more housing and accommodation but in other cases they have been rejected after people living nearby raised concerns about overcrowding and strain on services.

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But in St George’s Road’s case, the plans to covert the HMO run against this trend with the space instead set to be turned from housing into a business facility.

The proposal was first put before Bolton Council on Wednesday April 19 this year and will be open for neighbourhood consultations until Monday May 15.

This will allow some of the residents and businesspeople nearby on St George’s Road to give their views on the plan.

Once the consultation period has passed, town hall officials will then decide whether or not to approve the plan at a later date.