PLANS to build a shop and apartments in a car park in a city-centre Conservation Area have been approved.

Last Spring a proposal to build a six-storey building made up of a ground floor shop and 25 flats on Sunbridge Road was submitted to Bradford Council.

GJR Developments’ application to build on the small car park at the corner of Sunbridge Road and Vincent Street has now been approved by planning officers.

The scheme, designed by Bradford based Yeme Architects, will fall within the Goitside Conservation Area, an area of the city centre that has been a regeneration priority for many years.

The site has Grade II listed buildings either side of it, and backs onto a derelict industrial building.

The planning application had described the car park that the development will be built on as “infrequently used, undervalued and in a poor state of repair.”

National group Civic Voice highlights Bradford's Goitside area as 'at risk' conservation area

It went on to say the new building would improve the appearance of the protected area, adding: “The existing site and building to its rear presents a dilapidated exterior, both to Sunbridge Road and Vincent Street to its side.

“This creates an unpleasant public environment and has a negative impact on the character of the surrounding area.

“The proposed development seeks to not only add to the fabric of the plot, but consequently contribute positively to the surrounding public spaces.

“It is the intention to make a positive contribution to the Conservation Area and complements the powerful sense of enclosure derived from a continuous tall frontage to this area.”

The living accommodation will be a mixture of 10 studio flats, 10 one-bed and five two-bed flats.

The shop will take up 1,184 square foot of the ground floor, and there will also be basement cycle storage.

The Goitside Conservation Area is made up of buildings that were mainly constructed for warehousing and manufacturing connected with Bradford’s textile industry.

It includes a large area on the outskirts of the city centre, from Thornton Road to Westgate, and takes in areas of Grattan Road and Sunbridge Road.

In recent years there have been a number of buildings in the conservation area that have been re-developed as offices or flats.

But there are still a number of large, empty Victorian warehouses and mills on the site, and in 2018 National heritage group Civic Voice highlighted Goitside as an “at risk” conservation area.

After the plans were approved the architects said: “Great to start 2020 with our first planning approval for a communal inspired, sensitively-designed, residential scheme in the Goitside Conservation Area in Bradford Town Centre.”

One condition of the approval is that construction work on the new development can only take place between 7.30am and6pm on Mondays to Fridays, 7.30am and 1pm on Saturdays and at no time on Sundays, Bank or public holidays.