Former police station to become flats
GooglePermission has been granted to turn a police station that closed almost 30 years ago into a block of flats.
Gateshead Council's planning and development committee agreed to the proposals for the former station on Sunderland Road in Felling, which closed in 1999 before reopening as a youth probation centre and then a school.
The building, which has been empty for several years, will include eight one-bedroom and six two-bedroom flats, but concerns were raised over storage space and the lack of so-called "affordable housing".
The Reform-led local authority's planning officers recommended the plans for approval on the basis it would bring a disused historical building back into use.
While the development fell short of a legal requirement to provide what affordable housing, the applicant George Leonidas told the council the flats were "intended" for affordable rent.
Six of the flats do not meet current space standards regarding the amount of storage available, however planning officials were satisfied that, given the constraints of converting a historic building, the proposals would still offer an acceptable standard of accommodation, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.
Neither Northumbria Police or Network Rail, as the building backs on to tracks, objected to the change of use proposal.
