PLANS have been drawn up to turn offices at the site of a historic hall into a residential institute for addiction treatment which sparked some opposition have been given the go-ahead.

Proposals for the change of use of mixed use offices and consulting rooms at Rainford Hall on Crank Road were submitted.

Plans also included the construction of a garden room at the location.

A planning statement has been prepared by Aida McManus on behalf of the Rainford Estate (the applicant) for the planned end user Steps Together, which is a specialist private residential and outpatient health, wellbeing and addiction treatment provider.

The plans state: "Rainford Hall is a large historic hall owned by the Pilkington family, and forms part of the Rainford Hall estate.

"The hall enjoys its own private grounds as part of the wider estate. The building was changed from residential use to a B1 office use in the 1980’s.

"Although, the initial office use was popular it has been difficult to sustain occupancy levels beyond 35 to 40%. Due to the economic climate, combined with the COVID pandemic, the hall is suffering from a chronic shortage of occupiers and has for some time".

They added: "The planning application seeks to change the use of the offices Class (E) and reinstate the rooms to provide accommodation as a residential institution to provide a 20 bedroomed luxury (private) residential care facility to deliver Steps Together’s clinical and therapeutic treatment programmes.

"This will also include the siting of a garden room measuring 8m long x 4.8m".

Plans concluded: "The provision of this specialist care facility will reuse an existing heritage asset to ensure that the owners can generate sufficient revenue to secure the long-term maintenance of the hall and grounds".

The application received some objections from residents.

Concerns raised included proximity to Fairfield Gardens; car parking and road access; Fairfield Hospital already having a parking issue and people questioning whether the creation of the facility is within the scope of being residential.

In a report, recommending the plans for approval, case officer Daley Parsonage said: "Given the location of the building on the site it is not expected that there will be any impact in terms of overlooking or overbearing impact which would harm any nearby residents".

The report added "that coming and going from the building in terms of vehicle movements will be similar to the consented use".

It also stated: "It is not appropriate to assume that the change of use would cause anti-social behaviour and crime and accordingly the perceived character of behaviour of the potential residents is not a material planning consideration and cannot be given any weight against the proposed development".

The report said "is acknowledged that residents could have genuine concerns" but added "ultimately it would be down to the management of the proposed accommodation to ensure that residents do not cause anti-social behaviour".

It also said:"it is considered that the proposed development will not have a detrimental impact upon highway safety".

Plans were given formal approval.