Plans for a trendy high-rise on a controversial town center site have been withdrawn.
Designs for the 15-story tower on Oak Street Car Park on Middlesbrough’s Corporation Road, were lodged with the council last October, 2021.
The site next to The Medicine Bar was once home to the Cleveland Scientific Institution, which was controversially demolished in 2006 after a mix-up meant senior officers did not know about its impending fate.
Plans submitted in 2021 by a Middlesbrough Council subsidiary, MDC, included 131 new homes, commercial units and hospitality space to the ground floor. Developer Chaloner Group had hoped to start construction this year, following “positive” public consultation.
But nine months on, the planning application has been withdrawn.
They claimed the analysis and evaluation of the opportunity was not detailed or “robust” enough and Middlesbrough Council had raised “several concerns.” “It was explained that there was a political vision to deliver high density residential development in the town centre to support regeneration and provide much needed homes,” the report said.
A planning statement accompanying the application said “desire for town centre living, previous applications and strategies” have identified this area as the correct location for erection of taller buildings. The application represented a “safe, attractive, well-designed and considered scheme” that is appropriate in terms of “layout and form and will contribute positively to the character and appearance of the surrounding area,” it claimed.
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