London Road fire station CPO unchanged
The latest planning application by Britannia Hotels to turn the derelict landmark into a hotel was approved last night by Manchester City Council but the compulsory purchase order will go ahead, the council said.
A spokesman for the city council said the hotelier had been granted consent to build before, as early as 1986 when it first acquired the site, but nothing had ever been done to the building.
The council will serve a CPO notice shortly to take control of the site in Piccadilly but expects a public inquiry to be held in the first half of 2011 after objection by Britannia.
Britannia, controlled by Alex Langsam, owns hotels around the region including the Britannia on Portland Street, Manchester, the Adelphi in Liverpool and the Grand Metropole in Blackpool.
I think it is a shame that such a historically significant building had been left to decay and used as what appears to be a storage yard for so long. Manchester has a great history, which should be persevered and celebrated by maintaining its buildings. This level of craftsmanship would be not be economically viable to recreate in this day and age therefore the hard work of previous generations shouldn’t be left to fall in to such a state. That area is one of the first points people see coming out of the station and it is looks old and worn out.
By Raoul Duke