PROPOSALS to demolish a grand Sunday school building have been withdrawn after a conservation officer raised serious concerns about the plans.

Late last year an application to demolish the Sunday school next to the Ukranian Church of the Holy Trinity and Our Lady of Pochaiv on Birr Road, Manningham was submitted the Bradford Council.

The application would have seen 10 houses built on the site in its place.

The proposals, by Langtry-Langon Architects, say the vacant building has been marketed since it first became vacant in 2000, but has not attracted any buyers.

Maintaining it had become a financial burden for the parish, and demolition was likely the only way forward for the "rapidly deteriorating" building - according the the application.

The church was built in 1879, and was previously St John’s Methodist Church. It was sold to the city's growing Ukranian community in the 1950s.

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Although the church is Grade II listed, the applicants claimed the Sunday school building is not, and so it did not have the same protections provided to listed buildings.

But Conservation Officer at Bradford Council Jon Ackroyd disputed this.

In his report on the plans, he said: "It is concluded that the Sunday School is listed Grade II by virtue of being a curtilage structure.

"Historic England advice states that in general, any pre-1948 structure that formed part of the land and was in the curtilage of the principal listed building at the date of listing and is ancillary to the principal building is considered to be part of the listing.

"The deteriorating condition of the building is acknowledged. However, demolition is irreversible and would result in the total loss of the building. This must be the option of last resort."

The application said the building had been on the market, but that due to its poor condition there had been little interest.

It said a survey of the building carried out in 2017 found that it would cost the church at least £400,000 just to bring up to a "reasonable condition."

But Mr Ackroyd questions whether the building is beyond saving, and whether it has been marketed extensively enough for demolition to be the only option.

He added: "It has not been demonstrated that the tests required to justify the total loss of a heritage building have been met."

Referring to the planned design of the new houses, he said: "The proposed terrace of dwellings is regarded as undistinguished for its context.

"Whereas the Sunday School has a scale and presence which complements the church, without such a presence, the church would be left appearing isolated at the end of mediocre townscape on Wilmer and Birr Roads."

The application was withdrawn by the applicants last week.