Planning permission has been granted for the former Holy Spirit church on Tempest Road in Beeston Hill to become an online clothing business and café.
The application was discussed by the South & West Plans Panel on 3 October after objections were raised by local ward councillors.
The applicants plan to use the building for their online children’s clothing business and say 90% of purchases will be shipped, with 10% collected from the building, which will be by appointment only. They stress that deliveries and collections will be made by vans and not heavy goods vehicles.
Objections to their original application focused on parking and highways issues, loss of access to local heritage and the desire to retain the building for a community use.
In response, they have included a café and ‘hertiage hub’ which be open to the public four days a week. The business will not take deliveries on Fridays so as not to exacerbate the traffic issues around Friday Prayers at the next door mosque. They have also improved plans to deal with litter and fly-tipping in the basement voids around the building.
The building, which is Grade II listed, closed as a church in 2012 and saw a number of community ‘meanwhile uses’ up until 2015 including collecting donated aid for shipment to Iraq, table tennis, meals, faith events and the first Christmas Lantern Festival.
Since then it has remained vacant and has recently been added to the Council’s Heritage At Risk list due to its deteriorating condition.
Commenting on the decision Cllr Ed Carlisle (Green, Hunslet & Riverside) said:
“Holy Spirit was a unique community venue for 100+ years, and – as I said at the Plans Panel – I’m gutted to see it pass out of local use.
“I strongly suspect the community and heritage elements of these proposals are add-ons simply to win planning permission, and the building will very soon become wholly commercial.
“This wasn’t inevitable: there were credible local organisations, with cash, ready to take the building on. We could have done something brilliant there, that would have truly served the community.”
Councillors Paul Wray and Mohammed Iqbal (Labour, Hunslet & Riverside) added:
“We’re disappointed this application was approved in its current format. The site does need to come back into use and the building preserved for the future, but we have opposed this specific plan since it was originally submitted several years ago.
“This is on the basis that the traffic generated by the complex business model proposed for the site is likely to create far more traffic movements and parking than what the applicant has suggested.
“This will compound the existing issue in the area created by limited street parking.
“We have been consistent in this opposing, and we’re glad, towards the end, other stakeholders finally accepted these concerns and joined us in opposing the application.”
Photo: Jeremy Morton
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