PART of a historic quayside building will be turned into a flat after plans were approved by the council.

The first and mezzanine floors at the Old Harbour Office on Poole Quay will be converted into a flat after prior approval was granted by BCP Council for the proposals.

The ground floor in the Grade II listed building will be kept as a shop.

The mezzanine floor was added to the building recently after plans were approved in 2021, which would become the sleeping area, while the first floor would be kitchen, bathroom and living space.

As reported, this revised scheme was lodged following the refusal of a similar plan for a lack of a noise impact statement and details on storage and collection arrangements for bins.

Applicant Lambert Pressland resubmitted plans with a noise impact statement and liaised with the council’s waste management officer over the bin collections.

The case officer’s report said that the officer visited the site and recommended that the property could ‘continue using the bag collection service’ and that the officer had no objection to the plans.

It said: “As mentioned earlier in the report there is a justifiable concern regarding noise which has been fully assessed and can be dealt with conditionally.

Bournemouth Echo:

“With regard to the residential accommodation proposed, a one-bedroom property is proposed with 90sqm of space, this exceeds the national space standard requirement of 58sqm.

“The existing building does not contain an outdoor space, however the site is located in the Town Centre Heritage Conservation Area where limited external space is not uncommon.

“The building is Grade II Listed, is attached to listed and locally listed buildings and is located in an area which has a number of listed buildings.

“In this context it is considered that the preservation of the asset is a more important consideration than the lack of external amenity space.”

The report also acknowledged that the council is not meeting its five-year land supply targets or housing delivery targets in Poole.

It added: “The reuse of historic buildings is recognised as being important for the future maintenance of the building.”