THERE are fears over a bid by an ambitious property developer to convert more office space to flats close to the town centre.

Vinesh Aggarwhal, from Willenhall in the West Midlands, has already extended his permission to convert an the UK Life Centre from 126 flats to 170.

Now he wants to to take the total to more than 250 – but parish councillors are concerned the conversions may not be of the highest quality.

Mr Aggarwhal applied to be able to build an extra two storeys at the four-floor office building in Station Road.

South Swindon Parish Council’s planning committee has not yet decided its formal response to the plan, but the vice chairman Patrick Herring said: “Office conversions are so often used as an excuse to build cramped, low-quality homes while bypassing any scrutiny by local residents, councillors and planning officers.

“These plans are for an enormous number of homes, but they're missing details about things as basic as how the residents will get in and out of the building and how their rubbish will be collected.

“It's disappointing that the developer hasn't felt it necessary to reach out and engage more considering the size and scale of the proposals.”

Mr Aggarwhal's new application is for outline permission only – which means the details of the appearance, size and layout of the new additions and the apartments will have to be agreed later. His application shows the two new storeys to be similar is size and shape to the rest of the building.

He has also applied to change the exterior of the building – altering the plate glass windows on the empty office block to more conventional pairs of windows.

The lack of detail in the new application is a concern to local parish councillors, who weren’t very happy with the original application.

When Mr Aggarwhal was given his original consent for the 170-flat conversion the council said the plans weren’t detailed enough, with no proposals shown for the ground floor. It also said the smallest flats were undersized, there was not enough parking provision and bin and bicycle storage was not shown.

Under permitted development rules nationally, the conversion of office blocks to flats does not have to get full planning permission – and now the government has said two new storeys can be added to apartment blocks without going through the whole process.

Mr Aggarwhal has not responded to approaches for comment