PERMISSION has been granted for a funeral director's to open off the Chesterway roundabout.

Cheshire West and Chester Council has given a 'change of use' application to the former office building the green light.

Witton House, which sits near the Station Road exit on the west side of the roundabout, had been subject to a number of similar applications in recent years.

Before the successful application was submitted in April –

the fourth bid in 15 months

– a proposed nursery had been refused permission due to access concerns last January.

Plans for a speech and language therapy health clinic and then a chip shop were each withdrawn in quick succession in November.

But planning officers say the proposed use as a funeral director's – accompanied by a travel plan – was seen as being 'not at detriment to the highway safety'.

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Case officer Jack Smith said: "It is considered that a number of applications have been made in this site’s history which demonstrate that finding a suitable use for the site is difficult to achieve.

"Furthermore, this also highlights that the existing use of the premises is no longer commercially viable."

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He added: "It is also considered that the use can be conditioned to the specific use – funeral home and memorial showroom – in light of its specialist nature and to prevent a change of use to other retail uses which might harm the vitality or viability of nearby town centres."