Nightclub plan for former town centre bank back on the table

manchestereveningnews.co.uk:

Plans to convert a long-vacant town centre bank into a nightclub have been revived - despite previously being rejected over anti-social behaviour concerns.

An application to change the use of the former Royal Bank of Scotland, in Middleton, was refused by Rochdale council’s planning committee 18 months ago, with members citing a history of alcohol-fuelled trouble in the area.

But Salford -based Laaj Enterprises has now revived the scheme, calling into question the basis on which its previous proposal for the Market Place building was refused.

Referring to officers’ advice to councillors in a report and at a meeting, a supporting statement reads: “The planning and licensing committee were advised twice that the matters upon which they wished the application to be refused were not material planning considerations. “Nonetheless the committee went on to refuse the application and the refusal notice cited the sole reason for refusal a matter which they had been explicitly advised would not be a material consideration under a planning application.” It goes on to warn that should the council again refuse permission ‘an appeal will be lodged with the Planning Inspectorate together with an application for a full award of costs on the grounds that the LPA [council] has unreasonably refused / failed to determine the substance of the appeal’. READ MORE : 'Bonus’ to ‘absolutely disgraceful’: Voter's react to independents councillor defecting to Labour less than a month after elections Dating to the late 19th century, the Market Place bank was rebuilt in the early 1990s but retains its stone facade and several original features.