THE decision to convert an office space in Woodford Lane into seven flats has been approved after concerns in the community were addressed.

After multiple concerns were raised and amended, planning permission has been granted to change the office building in Woodford Lane, into seven flats across a two-storey development with 12 available parking spaces.

When the request was initially submitted in February, residents lodged concerns about the new homes being able to look into their property.

St Joseph’s, a nearby primary school, responded to say that they were already ‘struggling to cope’ with the level of traffic that utilises the road already.

Being located directly opposite to proposed site, the addition more vehicles will have a significant impact on road safety for neighbouring houses, businesses and the school.

Andrew and Jackie Rutter, who have lived in the street for more than 15 years, sent a letter to the team managing the development outlining their concerns over their privacy when learning about the placement of windows in the proposed plans.

The couple, who run a childcare business from their home, say the possibility of the future occupants having an ‘unobstructed view’ of the children in their care is ’deeply concerning’.

They wrote: “The dormer windows shown on the plans indicate that the view would be a straight line of sight into all windows located at the side of our property.”

The property was also exposed from the driveway through to the back garden where children would frequently be playing.

Amended plans were submitted to Cheshire West and Chester Council on May 30 after taking these complaints into consideration.

In its assessments, the report outline that officers did not consider that the number of vehicle moving in and out of the site would be significantly different from when the building was used as an office.

With regards to the overlooking complaint, the report added: “The originally submitted scheme has been amended to address issues of overlooking of a neighbouring residential property.

“The changes to the originally submitted proposal relate mainly to the south western side of the building where dormers and windows have been deleted so that only one window, which is the existing one, would remain at first floor level in the newly proposed south western elevation.”

The window would be created with an obscure glazed finish to the glass to prevent overlooking. During the amended planning process, a condition to ensure that this window is fixed and non-opening was recommended in order to address the issue further.