PLANS to bring Altrincham’s Stamford House ‘back to life’ have been accepted by Trafford Council.

The planning committee unanimously accepted the plans to covert the grade II listed building in the Stamford New Road Conservation Area into apartments on November 11.

There was consensus among councillors at the meeting that the restoration of the building was much-needed.

Cllr Michael Whetton said the building had been ‘crying out for attention’ for a long time, Cllr Daniel Bunting said the restoration would be ‘most welcome’ and Cllr Tony Fishwick said he welcomed the building being ‘brought back to life’.

Under the plans, submitted by Petros Development Company Limited, the first, second and third floors of the listed building will be converted into 24 apartments, a car park will be created in the basement and the ground floor retail units will be refurbished.

A single-storey building at the rear of the Stamford New Road house will be demolished and a single-storey rear extension created to provide additional retail floorspace.

A spokesperson for Altrincham and Bowdon Civic Society said: “We are very pleased that the scheme has been given the go-ahead.

“There is still a lot to discuss because the application is just for the building’s change of use and the exterior and we still need to talk about the interior and retaining some of the original office features.

“But after the building has been disused for so long, we are very pleased that the application has managed to get so far.

“It is really important especially with all the bad publicity of Altrincham at the moment that we have good news for this building.”

Stamford House, which was originally Station Buildings, was designed in 1905 by Manchester architect Charles Heathcote as one of the first office blocks in Altrincham.