Silver Street HMO Plan Lodged for Former Durham Cafe Restaurant

Ward Group wants to change a Silver Street building. The plan is to create a five-bedroom house there. It used to be a cafe and restaurant and they want to use the first floor and attic.

The project won’t change road or sidewalk access. They also will not add any new parking spots. This building sits in Durham’s historic area, right next to Framwellgate Bridge. You can see the castle and cathedral, too.

To keep peace, they plan to reduce noise, which will help businesses and residents coexist well. Bike storage space at the site is tight, but public transport is easy to use there.

Part of the site is in a flood zone, so they completed a flood risk study. A bat survey found little risk of bats living there. The project meets rules for biodiversity gains as well.

A pollution study was also done, but pollution isn’t really a worry there. This project creates one new housing unit and reduces business space by 86 square meters.

The ground floor will still have stores, though. Also, they will add roof windows, and a new doorway will allow roof plant upkeep.

They might move the air units. This would make the bridge look better. Other nearby buildings are already HMOs upstairs.

Their plan follows local Durham rules. These rules support homes above shops in town.