Bus driver training centre with 11 bedrooms to be created in empty listed building

A training centre for bus drivers is set to be created in an empty listed building in Bolton town centre. Public transport company Diamond Northwest also hope to transform the property on Wood Street into a house of multiple occupation with 11 bedrooms used ‘primarily for residential accommodation for drivers attending training courses’.

Plans submitted to Bolton Council this month state the terraced building in question dates back to around 1790, is Grade II listed and is part of a conservation which includes Wood Street, Silverwood Street and the eastern side of Bradshawgate.

A design and access statement in support of the plans said: “The building has been purchased on behalf of Diamond Northwest bus company who operate several bus services in and around Bolton.

“While the building is Grade 2 listed it has been subject to numerous interventions and modernisations in recent years with internal walls being added and removed, doors replaced, and ceilings being re plastered. The last use of the building was for office accommodation.

“The proposed conversion will see the ground floor being converted to form a bus driver training room, a break out room, kitchen, toilets, and a single bedroom with en-suite. The first floor will be converted to form six letting bedrooms with a separate dining kitchen.

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“The second floor will be converted to form four letting bedrooms with a separate dining kitchen. The bedrooms have been created primarily for bus driver accommodation and particularly the provision of residential accommodation for drivers attending training courses.”

This building is within walking distance of the head office of Diamond Northwest on Silverwell Street, some 150 metres away. The application said the development would makes use of ‘a redundant office block within a mixed residential commercial street within the town centre of Bolton’.

It added that the site is ‘a highly sustainable location will all local facilities within walking distance’. Planners at Bolton Council will decide on the plans in the coming weeks.