Student flats bid for city centre is given green light

Revised plans for a student accommodation development in Sunderland city centre have been given the green light.

- 

Sunderland City Council's planning department has approved an application for former retail units at 4-9 Olive Street in the Park Lane area.

The retail units were last used as a children's clothing store and as a bed store but according to planning documents, both units have been vacant for years.

Initial plans for the site proposed works to “reconfigure” the ground floor to create three commercial units fronting onto Olive Street and to create accommodation across the rest of the site.

This included converting parts of the buildings into student accommodation and building another two floors above the former bed store, with a two-storey upward extension to the existing flat roof initially proposed.