A new furniture store, hundreds of  self-storage containers and the conversion of houses feature in planning decisions and applications.

STRATTON ST MARGARET: Customers for ‘bulky goods‘ - which in this case means furniture  -should soon be making a beeline for the Greenbridge Retail Park.

Denton Pensions Management Ltd has been given permission to use the warehouse  at 1 Garrard Way, right on the edge of the park.

The company’s application to use the warehouse, as a retail store, and the accompanying offices could create up to 50 jobs its application said.

CENTRAL: A flat constructed in the roof space of two houses converted into flats without planning  can be kept Applicant G Mowe has asked for permission to retain the one-bed apartment at the back of 36-37 Milton Road.

The Victorian redbrick buildings, right next door to the listed Health Hydro were converted into flats about 20 years ago, but the small flat at the back of the buildings at the very top was not on the plans submitted in 2003, and therefore did not have permission.

Granting the consent to retain the flat, Swindon Borough Council planning officers said: “The second-floor rear roof space residential flat is neatly integrated within the existing roof-scape of a gable-end rear projection for its host three-and-a-half storey residential building.

The only external-facing features for the residential flat in question are four roof lights inserted into side-pitched roof slopes. In this respect, the residential flat in question would not appear as an incongruous or inharmonious addition to the rear street-scene.”

BLUNSDON: The final permission has been signed and granted to allow a road surfacing firm to put up hundreds of shipping containers in its yard to act as self-storage spaces.

Gibbs Surfacing Ltd, which owns and operates the concrete batching plant at 21 Turnpike Road in Blunsdon had its plan approved at a recent planning committee meeting given permission to change to change the use of its site to a large-scale storage business, despite objections by neighbours concerned about traffic and visual intrusion.

The company will be allowed to bring in 250 shipping containers which  will be stacked in twos around the perimeter of its site and in a double row down the middle. 

The change of use of houses is something of a theme in recent decisions.

CENTRAL: S Bhatia has been given the go-ahead to convert the three-bed house at 13 Newhall Street into three flats, all with one bedroom, but two of them suitable for a single occupant, and one for two people. The apartments are spread across three floors of the house.

PINEHURST: Developer S Sanghu has been given permission to convert the house at 328 Cricklade Road into two one-bedroom apartments.

CHENEY MANOR: Developer Mr Mudhar will be able to convert what was a guest house at 79 Cheney Manor Road into a four-bedroom family home featuring a home office and family room extension.

EXTENSIONS: Applications have been submitted to be able to build extensions to houses, or outbuildings or to convert garages and lofts into habitable rooms at 49 Avebury Road, Penhill; 40 Grange Drive, Stratton St Margaret; 69 William Morris Way, Tadpole Garden Village; 12 Falklands Road, Wroughton; 2 Forum Close, Stratton St Margaret; 23 Dorney Road, Redhouse; 9 Keswick Road, Park South; 4 Church Street, Stratton St Margaret; 9 Calas Rise, Wanborough; 13 Hesketh Crescent, Old Town; 9 Burford Avenue, Old Walcot.

Such applications have been approved for  21 Barcelona Crescent, Wroughton and 56 Purton Road, Moredon.