THE old Snuff factory in Kendal could become flats after a nod from the town council at its planning meeting this week.

Kendal's Mayor Cllr Douglas Rathbone who chaired the planning committee meeting said: "The snuff factory applications for both planning and as a listed building, were both recommended for approval by the committee and both myself and the committee were pleased to see an imaginative use of what is a landmark building in Kendal and we hoped that it would live up to the proposal in quality as well as design”.

Kendal town council act as one of the statutory bodies who give opinions on planning applications, which are then looked at by South Lakeland District Council (SLDC) for their final decision.

The old snuff works closed its doors after more than 130 years manufacturing snuff and tobacco in 2009, when it moved to new premises off Shap Road,

The closure came after a merger between historic tobacconists and snuff makers Samuel Gawith – based at Canal Head and Gawith Hoggarth in March 2015. That merger reunited two companies who started as one, 137 years after they split.

The company has now revealed its plans to create two residential flats on the first floor of 25-27 Lowther Street.

It would retain current offices and create a small museum for Gawith Hoggarth & Co on the ground floor of number 27.

In a heritage assessment of the building, Greenlane Archaeology said: “The site represents an important aspect of Kendal’s history and part of a relatively understudied industry."

Commenting on the plans the assessment read: “In general, the proposed alteration works will be designed to have a negligible impact on the heritage significance of the building and its setting. The existing structure and building elements are all to be retained.

“All necessary steps will be taken to safeguard the significance of the heritage asset. The intention is that many original features will be retained and repaired as part of this phase two application thereby retaining the integrity of the historic asset.”