Salford to reapprove B&M-to-Yeshiva conversion
A retail unit in Broughton Park that has been vacant for a decade is to be brought back into use as an educational and community facility for the area’s orthodox Jewish community.
Salford City Council’s planning department has recommended for approval Ohr Torah’s plans to convert the former B&M Bargains store at Bevendon Square into a Yeshiva, a school for studying religious texts like the Torah.
The site would replace Yeshivah Ohr Torah School on Broom Lane, which closed in 2022 four years after being given an ‘inadequate’ Ofsted rating.
The proposals, lodged earlier this year, would supersede earlier plans for a similar scheme on the site that were approved in 2020. That consent has since expired. The new scheme, which could accommodate around 120 students, omits plans for a new-build element to the east of the plot.
All of the facilities proposed – teaching and seminar rooms, prayer and assembly space, dining and lunch facilities, staff offices, welfare accommodation, and storage – would all be delivered within the existing former retail unit.
Debtal Architecture is advising the applicant on the proposals.
To learn more, search for planning reference number PA/2026/0234 on Salford City Council’s planning portal.
