By Margaret Crosby

Published at 11:10, Thursday, 19 July 2012

THE landscape of Bransty Row, Whitehaven, has been drastically changed and new vistas out to sea opened up with the demolition, on safety grounds, of the dilapidated former bus depot which has blighted the northern entrance to town for more than a decade.

community transport: Coun Tim Knowles hands over the keys to the Dave Drinkald in the driver’s seat of the bus

The depot, formerly used to house Stagecoach buses, and the adjacent Grand Garage site (formerly occupied by B & H Motors), is being cleared, leaving a large vacant tract of land that has planning consent, granted almost three years ago, for a new complex of shops and flats.

Copeland Council gave permission to knock down the building which has stood empty for 15 years and had become a danger to the public. It is normally against demolition within a conservation area unless the site is to be immediately redeveloped. But the old depot was in a poor structural state and parts of the roof had fallen in allowing the interior to become heavily soiled inside with pigeon muck.

Once demolition has taken place, the old motor inspection pits will be filled in and the whole site covered with concrete. Boundary arrangements will then be put in place – a post and rail fence on the Bransty Row and Tangier Street boundaries, a low brick wall retained on the North Shore Road side and the existing old stone wall between the site and the harbour-front Millennium Promenade will be retained.

The site is owned by a Torquay-based company called Whitehaven Marina. Their development plan for seven ground floor shops with 62 apartments above, over five storeys, gained planning approval in August 2009. Approvals last for three years so it could run out unless the owners apply for an extension.

Published by http://www.whitehavennews.co.uk