A ONCE-POPULAR nightclub in the centre of Swindon can be knocked down and replaced with a much larger block of flats.

Planners at Swindon Borough Council have given the go ahead – in principle – to the proposal by Tunley Properties to demolish Lava Lounge in Fleet Street and build a six-storey tower with 25 flats above a ground floor commercial unit. The building has been empty and unused

The precise design of the building and lay-out of the flats will be the subject of another application, but the original proposal said: “The new apartments have been carefully designed within the building perimeters to ensure satisfactory living conditions for new residents, while maintaining the amenity enjoyed by the surrounding buildings.”

Drawings show that parking would be provided at the back of the ground floor of the building under the residential floors.

Each of the five upper floors would have five flats each.

South Swindon Parish Council objected to the application because the plans were incomplete and did not show the four upper floors of the tower.

It added: “The plans as presented do not make sense – the first floor has a section of the building accessed by a staircase which is not shown on the corresponding ground floor plan.”

Amcor Property Limited which uses the next-door building, Focal Point, wrote to planners and said: “The principal concern warranting objection relates to the scale of the proposed development and the implications it will have upon the amenity of offices in Focal Point, particularly the potential loss of daylight and sunlight to the building’s western elevation and the central offices within the ‘horseshoe’ of Focal Point.”

But these worries did not deter planning officers at Euclid Street.

The report recommending the plan be approved said: “It is acknowledged that a multi-storey building would fairly significantly exceed the height of the current more modest two-storey building however there is evidence of other multi-storey buildings in the vicinity, notably Focal Point immediately next to the site is a five-storey commercial building and the building to the rear is an eight-storey commercial building.

“There is no reason to suggest at this stage there will be any unacceptable impact upon the character of the area or upon residential amenity.”