Heron Foods want to turn a former St Ann’s pub into shops

 Exclusive In a surprise development the former Westminster public house in St Ann’s has been acquired by Heron Foods, a family owned food retailer based in the East Riding area of Yorkshire, who are dedicated to bringing its customers the best value in frozen chilled and grocery products.

Heron Foods presently operate 235 stores trading in the north of England, and the Midlands, including Unit 35-37 Tanners Walk in the Broadmash Shopping Centre.

There was great sadness in St Ann’s last autumn after the Westminster suddenly closed down on Tuesday 27^th November 2011, and was ceiled up with steel shutters.

Having acquired the building, the Carlton Branch of Jehovah’s Witnesses, put in a planning application to Nottingham City Council in December to convert the ground floor area into a place of worship. This was to replace their over crowded Kingdom Hall located in Victoria Park, St Ann’s. However, nothing was heard from the Jehovah’s Witnesses or the City Council.

Now on behalf of Heron Foods, the Agent, White Design UK Ltd of Sheffield, submitted the latest planning application on 25^th March.

The planning Ref Number is 13/00655/PFUL3. Under the new plans the two storey building is to be retained. Dilapidated sections of the single storey building are to be demolished.

New single storey walls are to be constructed in line with the existing footprint and internal walls at ground floor level are to be removed to provide open retail floor areas, wherever possible, with the inclusion of new structural steelwork.

The pitched roof to the two storey building is to be retained and repaired. A new flat roof is to be constructed above all ground floor single storey components.

The ground floor is to be extended to create two retail units, Unit 1 will be 280 square meters, and Unit 2 268 square meters. Heron Foods will occupy Unit one.

The first floor living space is to be converted into two apartments, both being 60 square meters in size. Access to the first floor apartments is via a dedicated staircase and walkway accessed from the rear of the property.

Planning notices will now be put up in the area of the former Westminster pub, and the period of time when locals may object to the plans is likely to last until the end of April 2013

By Richard Pearson