Plans have been submitted to Darlington Borough Council for the change of use from a retail store to a mixed use development formed of a ground floor retail unit and two apartments above.

The premises in Northgate, Darlington, is currently a vacant Class E – retail unit, with the primary retail and store spaces at ground floor, and ancillary space to first and second floor.

The applicant is looking to convert the front areas of the first and second floor ancillary spaces to form two apartments under the available permitted development allowance.

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The site forms part of the retail high street within the centre of Darlington. The ground floor retail unit fronts both Northgate and Crown Street.

The ground floor unit was previously occupied by Hotter Footwear, with the spaces to the rear and upper storeys used for ancillary storage and staff hospitality facilities.

Access is achieved at ground floor through the main retail space, with a secondary door to the rear forming the means of escape to the ancillary spaces to the rear and upper floors leading to a rear courtyard.

An external stair to the rear courtyard provides a means of escape for the first and second floors into the courtyard.

A side entrance is also present along Crown Street, however, it appears that this has been historically blocked during the formation of the ground floor store rooms.

The existing rear internal staircases will be retained as part of the proposals providing access to the proposed apartments, with access at ground floor being shared with the retail unit to provide means of escape in the event of fire.

The existing external stair would be retained to provide means of escape for the remaining ancillary spaces at first and second floors.

The internal review also confirmed that the proposed apartments comply with the relevant space standard for their unit types.

Each apartment utilises the existing window positions to provide the key habitable spaces with natural light and ventilation, ensuring that there will be no change to the external appearance.

As the existing ground floor would be retained as a retail space, with regular operating hours, it would not be anticipated that there would be any adverse impacts of noise on the intended occupants of the development.

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