Developer Peachtree Services Ltd seems to have plenty of choice of what to do with an office block in central Swindon.

And it may yet have more choices later.

The company, which is based in Pimlico in London, was given permitted development consent to turn the SN1 office block in Station Road into 59 flats in 2019.

But the rules on converting offices into residential units have changed since that was granted – but the company now has two separate permissions granted within the last 12 months.

In January 2023 the company applied for prior approval to convert the ground floor of the block into 11 flats and the first floor of the building to 13 apartments.

That was later changed to nine apartments on the ground floor and 11 on the first floor, and prior approval was granted, because the building has been substantially empty since 2021, in May last year.

In just 2023 the company applied for a full planning permission to change the use of the entire building, so that all four floors could be used to provide 40 flats.

The company’s application said the building needed substantial refurbishment and since 2021, despite active marketing, nobody had wanted to use it for offices, and that it was at the end of its useful life as a commercial building.

There would be a mixture of one-bed, one-person flats, one-bed apartments suitable for two people and two-bedroom apartments.

That scheme has just been approved, with Swindon Borough Council’s planners saying: “The loss of the commercial floor space at ground, second, third and fourth floor levels would be outweighed by the benefit of the new housing proposed. The scheme would fall within the definition and meet the objectives of “sustainable development” being in a highly sustainable accessible location, providing new homes and opportunities for construction jobs, council tax receipts and local spending.”

But Peachtree Services wants to go further.

It still has an application, made in April last year, to put another two stories on top of the building in order to be able to construct another 20 apartments.

With the nine flats on the ground floor already approved, plus one of the 40 recently okayed being on the ground floor, permission for the extra stories would bring the total number of apartments in the building to 69.

No decision has yet been made on the plan to build 20 flats in the two extra storeys.