Preston go-ahead for Tithebarn Gateway

Plans for a 124-apartment building, to be built at Tithebarn Street next to the city’s listed bus station, were approved along with a 44-strong Wainhomes housing scheme.

In the city centre, the site put forward by Isle of Man-based Wansfell, represented by Lambert Smith Hampton, is bound by Tithebarn Street, Old Vicarage, and Bishopgate, from which it will be accessed by car.

The building currently on site was built at the same time as the landmark bus facility that sits next to it, with commercial units below a level of rooftop parking.

The scheme has been designed by Newcastle-based NW Architects, which proposes retail and leisure at ground floor and ten levels of flats, ranging from one to three bedrooms each.

There will be 82 one-bedroom apartments, 37 two-bedroom apartments and five three-bedroom. The ground floor will house 2,000 sq ft of retail. No affordable housing is proposed due to viability issues.

Hydrock advised on transport and LSH on planning, heritage and viability. The applicant is listed as Wansfell, care of Praxis Real Estate Management. Wansfell also owns the nearby St John’s shopping centre.

As well as the bus station, the site is close to the St Ignatius Square conservation area. The site formerly housed a nightclub, but of the three units currently on the plot, only one is occupied, by Age UK.

In Broughton, Wainhomes has secured consent for 44 houses on land off Whittingham Lane. The site is allocated for housing, and neighbours various other plots consented under the Broughton Neighbourhood Development Plan.

Houses and bungalows of two to four bedrooms will be built, with 35% of them being affordable.