A PLAN to build a 98-room apartment building in the city centre looks set to finally get off the ground if the council allows a condition to be removed to speed up demolition.

Planning permission for the six-storey apartment block opposite St Martin’s Gate car park was approved by Worcester City Council in principle in July 2016 and was signed off in January last year.

Approval of the plan meant a number of single-storey buildings currently used for car valeting and repairs would be demolished to make way for the new flats.

Worcester Developments Ltd, the company behind the plan, has requested some of the conditions in the planning permission be amended to allow for the demolition of the existing builds, essential archaeological work and letting contracts to be compiled properly.

Under the current planning permission, Worcester Developments Ltd - which plans to sell the land to a housing developer once demolition has taken place – is under instruction to have a proper contract in place before any buildings are knocked down.

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Worcester Developments Ltd needs to demolish the buildings first to allow for thorough archaeological work to be carried out and contracts to be finalised.

National planning legislation and guidance allows for ‘minor’ amendments to be made to planning permission once it has been agreed between the council and the developer.

The latest application, to be discussed by the city council’s planning committee on Thursday (March 21), has asked for that condition to be removed and would untangle some of the complex contract and archaeological work to allow for demolition to take place and the development to progress.

Worcester Developments Ltd had also asked for a condition to be deleted which meant a building must be erected as soon as demolition work has finished but a compromise between the developer and city council planners have put a January 2021 deadline for work to begin.

If approved, several other conditions would be slightly reworded to make the process of demolition and later contract work run smoother.

The 98-bed apartment block – which includes 59 car parking spaces and 188 cycle spaces – would neighbour the new development planned for the former Granary building next to Asda in Lowesmoor.

The proposed apartment block is part of the Lowesmoor Conservation Area and is labelled as archaeologically sensitive in the South Worcestershire Development Plan (SWDP) but the buildings marked for demolition are not seen to be historically or architecturally significant.