Bradford: Derelict warehouse to be turned into flats

A former warehouse dating back to the 1880s is to be converted into 13 flats after plans are approved.

The former Grade II listed warehouse on Chapel Street in Bradford’s Little Germany has been derelict for more than a decade.

Iqbal Singh applied last year to convert the building into apartments.

Bradford Council planners said the work would make a “modest contribution” to the target of creating 3,500 new homes in the city centre.

It added that the residential use would “bring bustle and activity back into the local community and help with a social role and nightlife”.

Officers said the proposed development would “strike an acceptable balance between meeting modern needs and preserving the historic integrity of the listed building”.

“The core strategy indicates that Bradford city center has been identified for 3,500 new homes, this development will play a role, albeit a modest one, in achieving this target,” they added.

Planners said there was a need to develop larger homes with “two beds or more” in the town.

However, they said that while this particular development would provide mostly one-bedroom accommodation, the building has “almost no scope for expansion given that it is a Grade II listed building in the Little Germany Conservation Area and its close relationship with other buildings’.

The warehouse has been abandoned for more than a decade, with the application adding that the building “has been occupied by pigeons and a lot of pigeon droppings have started to accumulate”.