FOURTEEN homes could be built on the site of a former newspaper warehouse in Old Town.

Developers Blewbury Court Ltd want to demolish the old store in Albert Street, that once housed paper reels used by the Swindon Advertiser, and replace it with three terraced houses along with an apartment block.

The application to Swindon Borough Council has prompted concern among neighbours over parking and access on the narrow streets surrounding the site.

In a design and access statement submitted with the application, architects Rayner Davies said: “The applicant wishes to demolish the existing poor quality buildings on site and replace them with a purpose built high quality and contemporary apartment building.

“As well as apartments, the proposals include for three terraced houses to respond to market demand and the architecture of existing properties on Albert Street.”

The proposal involves houses on the Albert Street frontage, 10 one-bed and one two-bed apartments on the Church Road side, with one parking space for each of the houses in the form of underground garages accessed from Little London.

One Albert Street resident said: “If fourteen new homes are created this area will be even more overrun. It is already very populated.

“I also do not understand how they think they will have enough room to include garages, it just makes no sense. If they authorise this it will most likely take over a year to do, which will also mean constant disruption.”

Consultants for the developer said planning permission to build 19 flats was refused in 2006 because of overdevelopment, but a later application was granted. Then last year permission was granted for six apartments.

They described the current buildings as detracting from the character and appearance of the Old Town Conservation Area and the setting of Christ Church.

Marrons Planning said: “The general poor appearance of the site justifies a larger development that makes full use of the site and provides public benefits in terms of visual appearance.”

The conservation area came into force nearly 40 years ago and is based around two of the town’s oldest roads, Wood Street and High Street, Bath Road and Victoria Road.

It covers the Little London area.

The building was part of the newspaper operation until printing at the Victoria Road base ended in around 2004. After that it was used for storage and staff car parking until the Advertiser moved earlier this month to new offices at Richmond House on the Edison business park in Dorcan.

A separate planning application has been lodged to turn the Advertiser building into apartments has been submitted to the borough council.

The applications can be seen online at Swindon.gov.uk