Council buying units to create West End homes

PLYMOUTH City Council is buying up business premises in the city centre as it looks to transform the area by knocking down buildings and creating 300 new homes.

- WILLIAM TELFORD

The local authority has already bagged several long leases in the West End and is in negotiations with other businesses as it looks to make good on a plan to create a “residential-led mixed use” development.

The council has recently acquired the long leases of some properties on New George Street and Raleigh Street and said it plans for them to be demolished. It is also in confidential negotiations with other businesses and some remaining long leaseholders.

Under the Joint Local Plan the aim is for this area to become a residential-led mixed use development with more than 300 dwellings including retention and refurbishment of the Art Deco Colin Campbell House.

In June The Herald reported how bosses of the Grecian Taverna, in Market Avenue, had complained they had been offered a cash settlement to move out which they considered an ‘insult’. They said that the business had been based there for 47 years and still had more than a year left on its lease, with other venues suggested for relocation being totally unsuitable.