Proposals for apartments above a former city centre jewellers have been resubmitted to council development bosses. Earlier in August, 2022, Sunderland City Council’s planning department validated an application for 15 Waterloo Place near the city’s central rail station.
The corner retail unit was last occupied by the Herbert Brown jewellery shop but according to planning documents, it has been empty for more than two years. On June 6, 2022, plans to convert the upper floors of the building into six self-contained apartments were refused by council planners over a range of issues.
This included a lack of suitable waste storage facilities, the “sub-standard level of accommodation and amenity” proposed and the lack of a submitted noise assessment looking at “exposure of the property to external noise levels”. The council ruling followed several objections from members of the public and the council’s environmental services manager, who warned of a “significant impact on the city centre environment and the vision of the city”.
