PLANS have been submitted to demolish a former bank and to build a new three storey building in its place.

If approved the former Natwest bank building in Main Street, Milnthorpe, which has remained derelict for many years, will be replaced by a ‘modest’ ground floor retail premises, self-contained flats on two upper floors and off-road parking.

The application was submitted by Mr T Rushton to South Lakeland District Council on February 2.

In the proposals, documents describe the development as follows: “The proposal is for a three-storey building, with the upper floor built into the eaves of the roof so that the ridge line remains in keeping with the rising row of buildings along Main Street.

“The ground floor will be used as a retail property with customer access from the east end, off the broad area of paving at the junction of Main Street with Haverflatts Lane.

“This will mirror the form of the shop building across Haverflatts Lane, with a traditional glazed display window and central entrance door.

“Each of the two upper floors will form self-contained residential flats. There will be a small single storey extension to the ground floor retail premises on the north elevation, and a small extension rising to roof level on the west elevation to provide staircase access to the flats.”

The Westmorland Gazette:

Documents also say the development will provide an “improvement to the street scape in this part of the conservation (Milnthorpe Conservation Area) area.”

It added: “The building will form a strong eyeline with the other buildings along Main Street, and largely mask the modern building to the north when viewed from alone Main Street west of Haverflatts Lane, Market Place, and in the visual context of Market Cross.”

Documents stated that the proposed building ‘should offer no substantial harm to the character of the Conservation Area and be integrated with the surroundings’.

And the design of the build will ‘take account of the characteristics and scale of adjacent buildings’.