Rodbourne: A plan to convert the abandoned telephone exchange building in the historic GWR works district into seven flats, which had been previously turned down, has been refused again.

Highworth Homes’ proposal to covert the late Victorian building in Firefly Avenue into apartments was refused by members of the council’s planning committee in November 2019.

Members thought the need for an external staircase and landing running past bedrooms in the flats, and the lack of car car parking and cycle storage, which is only accessible when the underpass between the works district and Bristol Street is open, were unacceptable.

The application was revised and resubmitted earlier this year but planning officers have again turned it down saying: “The revised submission has not adequately addressed the committee’s previous reasons for refusal. Councillors have confirmed their concerns still remain, as such the council’s position remains unchanged.”

North Star: Work can start on converting the Swindon College buildings to house the coming £21m Institute of Technology.

The application by the college to create a new entrance and reception area for the Institute has been approved.

The Institute will occupy the prominent, seven-storey Pegasus Tower and the Corvus wing next to it, in the heart of the 10-building campus, and is expected to open in autumn this year.

Gorse Hill: A three-bedroom house could be converted into three flats, with a total of four bedrooms if Stephen Keen’s plan is approved.

He wants to extend 1 Poulton Street and chop the family home into apartments. There would be two one-bed flats on the ground floor and a two-bed flat upstairs, with its second bedroom in the loft.

As part of the plan a garage and parking spaces would be built at the back of the property, accessible from Handel Street.

Stratton St Margaret: A plan to build 12 houses,in six pairs of semi-detached homes on the site of a car showroom's parking area has been given the go-ahead.

The proposals by Macniven Quays to build the homes in Crampton Road on the site used by Welcome Cars has been approved by officers.

Stratton St Margaret Parish Council objected to the scheme on the grounds it was an isolated residential development in an industrial park, and initially asked for the application to be called into the planning committee, but then withdrew it.

The site is a few yards away from the WHSmith headquarters site where a number of plans for new houses have been submitted

Middleleaze: The garden of a house in Castleton Road could see a new house built. Chris Mayo wants to build a three-bedroom house next to number 33, extending the pair of semi-detached houses into a short terrace of three houses.

Extensions: Permission to build extensions to outhouses or to convert outbuildings or lofts into habitable rooms has been sought for: 20 Cartwright Drive, Old Shaw; 162 Kingshill Road, Kingshill; 88 Tweed Close, Haydon Wick; 160 Goddard Close, Old Town; 24 Vicarage Road, Rodbourne Cheney and 111 Ashbury Avenue, Nythe.

Such applications have been approved for 42, Thornhill Drive, St Andrews; 27 Wicks Close, Haydon Wick; 57 Pheasant Close, Dorcan; 22 Clary Road, Haydon Wick; 38 Northbourne Road, St Andrews; 40 Highdown Way, St Andrews; 64 Tracy Close, Abbey Meads; 79 Mulberry Grove, Rodbourne Cheney; 64 Whiteman Street, Gorse Hill; 2 Queensborough, Toothill; 1A High Street, Chiseldon; and 215 Marlborough Road, Lawn.