The owners of a Bristol shopping centre dubbed the ‘saddest in Britain’ have asked council planners if they can convert 10 of the empty shop units into flats. Developer Firmstone has asked Bristol City Council if it needs planning permission to make the conversion to the around half the empty space at the St Catherine’s Place shopping centre in Bedminster.
The company already has planning permission to build a total of 180 new flats on land in and around the St Catherine’s Place shopping centre alongside a major renovation of the shopping centre itself, as part of the Bedminster Green regeneration project. But it has been more than two years since planning permission was granted, and nothing has happened, with Firmstone acknowledging earlier this year that the development scheme was no longer economically viable for it.
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