3 Birley Street, Blackpool · Lancashire · 2022
A Heritage Statement in two days for a change of use in Blackpool Town Centre Conservation Area.
An application to reopen a vacant restaurant was stopped at validation for want of a Heritage Statement. Heritage Unlimited scoped it the same day and delivered it two days later, and planning permission was granted.
3 Birley Street is a two-storey terraced building of the late 19th century on a pedestrianised street in the centre of Blackpool. It is brick, now rendered, and has been refitted many times: it has a modern glazed shopfront and has been extended at the rear. It is not listed.
It stands within Blackpool Town Centre Conservation Area, which our statement records as first designated in 1984 as Talbot Square Conservation Area and extended in 2015 to take in this part of Birley Street. Two former bank buildings across the street, at nos.2 and 4 and nos.20 and 22, are on the council’s local list. The Heritage Statement was issued two days after the council’s letter. The Conservation Officer had no objection, and planning permission was granted in October 2022, with our statement listed among the approved documents.
- Property
- 3 Birley Street, Blackpool
- Listing
- Conservation area; setting of locally listed buildings
- Location
- Blackpool, Lancashire
- Authority
- Blackpool Council
- Year
- 2022
- Outcome
- Planning permission granted
An application stopped at validation.
The building had been a restaurant and was vacant. A new operator applied to reopen it as a restaurant and bar. The council declared the application incomplete. Its letter said that, because the site is in the Town Centre Conservation Area, the application must be supported by a Heritage Statement, and it gave 21 days for the missing material to be supplied.
There was no physical heritage problem to solve, because no external building work was proposed. The problem was that the decision is subject to s.72(1) of the Planning (Listed Buildings and Conservation Areas) Act 1990, and the council needed an assessment before it could start. For a business waiting to open, every week at validation is a week of rent with no trade.
Scoping the statement on the day.
We replied on the day the council’s letter was issued. We told the applicant what the statement would have to cover: the conservation area, and the two locally listed banks opposite, which engage the national policy on non-designated heritage assets. We also pointed to the architect who had drawn the building for an earlier permission, as the quickest source of the floor plans the council had asked for, and advised that the planning policy on bars in this part of the town centre would need its own statement from a planning consultant.
The assessment was desk-based. We set out the history of the conservation area and traced the building on Ordnance Survey maps published in 1892, 1912 and 1932.
The Heritage Statement.
The Heritage Statement was issued two days after the council’s letter. It described the conservation area and its significance, recorded how much the building has been altered, and considered the two banks before concluding that the change of use could not affect their setting. It found that the proposal would cause no harm and would preserve the character and appearance of the conservation area.
Validated, no objection, approved.
The application was validated in early September. The council’s Conservation Officer had no objection, and reminded the applicant that a new sign would need separate advertisement consent and that the opportunity should be taken to reduce the size of the fascia. Planning permission was granted in October 2022. The decision notice lists our Heritage Statement among the approved documents.
What we did
Two services, one outcome.
Heritage Statements
A Heritage Statement scoped on the day the council asked for it and delivered two days later, so that the application could proceed.
About Heritage Statements →Heritage Development Advice
Our first reply told the applicant which heritage assets the statement had to cover and what other professional input the application needed.
About Heritage Development Advice →Application held up for want of a heritage statement?
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