A DECAYING relic of the town’s industrial heritage could soon be replaced with a modern five-storey office block.

But plans for the former Garnett’s Cabinet Works site off Barbauld and Cairo Street would see the historic water tower saved from complete demolition.

Under the scheme put forward by PtS Property the tower would be dismantled and rebuilt in a more prominent location of the new development which will also see the demolition of the former School Room, Victoria Works and former council offices.

The report drawn up to support the application said: “In order to achieve the beneficial long term use of the site Victoria Works, the water tower and the former council offices, the Garnett Cabinet Works and the school room will have to be demolished.

“The water tower is structurally unsound and it would be extremely difficult to safely stabilise it.

“In addition its current location makes it difficult to usefully incorporate it into a wider scheme. The proposal is to therefore demolish the tower and rebuild it 3.5m from its current location where it can serve as an integrally designed part of a new scheme.”

The scheme would then see the five-storey 3,000spm office building with 40 ground floor parking spaces take up a large plot of the site with a separate single-storey building comprising of four retail units.

Councillors on the planning committee had previously thrown out plans to demolish the building at the water tower in the locally listed Bridge Street Conservation Area site.

In 2011 the same developers of the new scheme had put forward plans to demolish all buildings due to safety concerns over the structural standing of the buildings.

But councillors refused to accept the application because no concrete plans were put forward for what would take up the space with planning documents only suggesting it could be used for temporary parking while a long-term plan for the site was secured.

The planning application is now available to view at warrington.gov.uk.