Manchester planning update: London Road Fire Station; go-ahead for Yotel; Mayfield Depot approval
MANCHESTER City Council’s planning committee has deferred its decision on an extension to planning permission for the London Road Fire Station.
Britannia Hotels had applied for a three-year extension to a permission it received in 2010 to convert it into a 227-bed hotel.
The planning committee wants to visit the former fire station which has been owned by Britannia since the 1980s and is now semi-derelict.
Britannia has come under fire for not renovating the building over the past 25 years and the site was the subject of a failed compulsory purchase bid by Manchester City Council in 2011. It wanted to take control of the building which sits on a key “gateway” site close to Piccadilly station.
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YO! Sushi founder Simon Woodroffe has won planning approval to launch his Yotel hotel brand in Manchester.
The 258-bed hotel would accommodate the former Union Bank Building at 12 Piccadilly and a new, 20-storey tower on a vacant adjacent plot at 14-16.
Both sites are owned by Aneel Mussarat’s Manchester-based MCR Property group. Yotel launched with a focus on air travellers and has sites at Gatwick, Heathrow and Schiphol in Amsterdam. But it also has a building close to New York’s Times Square.
The Manchester project has been designed by Stephenson:ISA Studio.
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THE council has granted a premises licence for the Mayfield Depot next to Piccadilly Station.
Former Ear to the Ground director David Norris and Ground Control’s Jon Drape have teamed up with a Liverpool-based planning adviser called the Addy Consultancy to attract arts, food, film, music and fashion events to the building over the next three to five years, before the site makes way for a major redevelopment.
They said the licence was a “key milestone” in their bid to create a temporary cultural centre in 120,000 sq ft building. A planning application will be submitted soon for a change of use of the building.
Jon Drape, director of the Mayfield Depot Management Company, said: “Being granted the premises licence today is a great step forward for us to help realise our vision for the use of Mayfield Depot for the next five years.
“The licence gives us permission to host entertainment and sell alcohol at events to be held at the Depot. It covers Monday to Thursday up to midnight, and to 3am on Friday and Saturday. We can host up to 25 DJ led events a year.
“We are looking forward to working closely with GMP and other authorities to ensure we deliver one of the best run, safest and secure venues in the country.”
The permission came with a list of 79 conditions.
