A DECISION is set to be made on conditions related to apartments plans for a site formerly home to NHS buildings in a part of St Helens.

An application for the variation of conditions on approved plans for the buildings, on Cowley Hill Lane, will come before the planning committee at its meeting on Tuesday.

The committee is being recommended to agree that permission to grant planning permission be delegated to the head of planning, subject to the variation of the legal agreement previously signed and a number of conditions.

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A report to the committee says the site was previously occupied by a series of NHS buildings that were demolished in 2018, and it is currently vacant.

It adds: “This submission is made under Section 73 of the Town and Country Planning Act 1990 (as amended) and seeks to vary conditions 2 (plans) and 14 (drainage).

“Section 73 of the Act allows applications to be made to vary condition(s) previously imposed on a planning permission, including making minor material amendments to plans listed.

“A Section 73 planning permission is the grant of a new planning consent. However, the original planning permission continues to exist whatever the outcome of the application made under Section 73.

“Any new permission sits alongside the original permission, with the time limit for implementation the same as the original consent. Either permission can then be implemented and constructed.

“A Section 73 application has been submitted to vary condition 2, the approved plans, proposing a substation (and the associated works), amendments to the apartment building, including a slightly reduced footprint and change to the internal layout, amendment to the car parking for the apartment building, slight change to the house types and the landscaping details, both to reflect the amended planting that is proposed within the car parking area for the apartment block.

“The principle of development has been established by virtue of the earlier grant of consent. It should be noted that the quantum of development remains as per the earlier approval albeit with the addition of the substation.”

The report also states that the apartment building has been replanned internally to better suit the needs of the end user, Torus, who wish to provide accessible and adaptable dwellings and the changes will meet the relevant building regulation standards, but the overall number and location of individual apartments within the building is unchanged.