Work to begin on demolition of Warrington vicarage

An application was agreed upon - subject to conditions - earlier this year.

Warrington Borough Council has now determined that the conditions have been met, and demolition work can begin.

The former Holy Trinity Vicarage, on Palmyra Square North, is now to be demolished, with the land being used for the construction of more than 20 flats.

It is planned that there will be 23 new flats, all with one or two bedrooms - according to applications, they will be considered 'affordable housing.'

An artist's impression of what the building could look like (Image: Newsquest)

This is the latest in a years-long battle to redevelop the land after plans were initially submitted in 2018 to build a nine-storey block of flats.

Original development plans for the flats were shelved in the summer of 2018, before being downscaled to six storeys in 2019 - again, these plans were withdrawn.

The existing two-storey vicarage building was built in the mid-1900s, with documents submitted as part of the application stating it is in a ‘relatively poor state of repair and is currently vacant’.

This latest application was made in consultation with Natural England and Warrington Borough Council in order to ensure that the conditions were met that would allow the development to go ahead.

Conditions that needed to be met before ground could be broken on the site included concerns about bats that may roost in the old building, as well as concerns regarding drainage.

Developers of the site said: "The current building is dwarfed by apartment blocks on either side and as such, the proposal is to demolish the existing building and replace it with a purpose-built apartment block."