PLANS to convert part of the old Citizens Advice building in Ellesmere Port into apartments have been given the go ahead.

Planning chiefs rubber-stamped an application by the council’s own housing services department when they met on Tuesday. The proposals centre on transforming the ground and first floors of the building at The Quays on the corner of Whitby Road and Cromwell Road into six self-contained, single-person apartments.

It was announced in 2021 that Citizens Advice would be closing the office as it was unsuitable for social distancing at what was then the midst of the Covid pandemic. Instead, services were offered from community access points at various sites around Cheshire West and Chester and the office has been closed ever since.

The new plans for the three-storey building will see apartments earmarked for social, affordable or intermediate rent and managed by Forum Housing Association.

A report to the committee said it had been demonstrated that there was ‘no reasonable prospect’ of the site being re-used for commercial purposes and that the loss of the commercial unit would not limit the range of the quality of employment uses in the area.

The report said there will be five new jobs created including three support workers and two housing management workers.

Chair of the planning committee Cllr Gina Lewis said she wanted guidance provided to the applicant around fire safety due to the nature of the plans and the likely age of those living there.

She told the committee: “I’ve been battling for some time to have the Fire and Rescue Service as a consultee. However, nobody is really listening at Government level in order to change that.

“However, you have a lot of people living in this accommodation and can we have assurances that there will be recommended levels of smoke alarms and fire extinguishers available?”

Officers said the works had been designed to comply with fire safety, but at Cllr Lewis’s request an advisory (a guidance note) was added to planning permission to request adequate protections are in place.

The plans were passed unanimously.