THE upper floors of a West Street building in Bridport are to be converted into five self-contained flats.

Dorset Council has given permission for the changes at 2-4 West Street, a grade 2 listed building opposite the town hall.

An paper with the application for planning consent says the ground floor is currently used as a professional office with the first floor ancillary to that and the second and third floors are a vacant flat.

Once converted the building will have four one-bed flats and one 2-bed, two on the first floor, two on the second floor with an entrance to the corner property on South Street.

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Bridport town council said it strongly supported the conversion provided the resulting flats met the minimum national standards for size.

An agent’s outline to Dorset Council planners said all the flats would exceed the minimum standards, ranging from 39square metres to 62.8 square metres.

External changes to the building are expected to be minimal although a new first floor window will be added to the west elevation, facing a blank wall opposite.

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Said the agent: “The proposed development makes efficient use of the upper floors of the building to provide new dwellings without heritage harm. It will bring a partially vacant building back into beneficial use and provide new homes within a highly sustainable town centre location. On balance, the lack of private amenity space is considered acceptable given the proximity of the site to nearby open spaces.”