Plans to alter landmark entrance to Preston Bus depot to convert into flats

New doors and windows will be installed to make the landmark building more suitable for residential accommodation.

Planning chiefs have given the go-ahead to a scheme to replace six doors - five of them with windows - and introduce a roof light towards the rear as part of the work to turn the former office building into four luxury flats. And officers have agreed that the work will not result in a significant change to the way the iconic block looks.

"The proposed external alterations are considered to be limited," says a report by planning officers recommending the work should be allowed to go ahead. "The proposed roof light is also considered to be positioned in a discrete location at the rear and would not be highly visible to the street scene.

"The proposed work would also be finished in matching materials to the existing and is not considered to have an unacceptable detrimental impact upon the design or external appearance of the building."

Developers plan to replace the aluminium reception doors at the front of the building in Deepdale Road with wooden doors to match those on the opposite side of the entrance archway.

Four doors at the rear of the office block, which led into the old garages and workshop will be partially bricked up to produce new mock sash windows. An external fire exit staircase will also be removed and its door replaced by a window.

The historic building was opened as offices in 1914. Rotala, which owns Preston Bus, has recently demolished some of the old garages and workshops at the rear to make way for a more modern facility. They were deemed to be unsafe.

"The offices used in connection with the workshops are in a separate building at the site's frontage and are uniquely configured and are devoid from the main depot," says the company. "They are not suited for the modern-day operation of the bus depot.

"The building is in a poor state of repair requiring roof repairs. The building is expensive to heat and not considered sustainable. The existing garage facilities were erected in the early part of the 20th century and are not currently a safe working environment with potential vehicle movement hazards."

The proposed new depot building will be "designed to suit a modern-day operation for a bus depot” and will house the offices all within one unit.

Originally a horse tram operation, an electric tram depot was first constructed on the site in 1904 and operated until the last tram ran in December 1935. Buses were first housed on the site from 1922.

Preston Council owned the bus company until it sold it in a management buy-out in 1993. In 2009, Preston Bus was bought out by national bus operator Stagecoach. Current owner Rotala bought the company in 2011 and now has a fleet of 120 vehicles and 260 staff.