A PROPOSAL to build luxury houses at a former school site in Greenock’s West End has been approved.
Councillors on Inverclyde Planning Board today voted to grant the application by CCG Homes for 30 three-bedroom homes for private sale at Madeira Street where Greenock Academy used to be.
There will be 24 three-storey townhouses and six 2.5-storey terraced houses.
Councillor Stephen McCabe said: “This is a worthwhile application that will add significantly to the quality of housing stock in Inverclyde.”
Ten objections were received raising concerns over design and the impact on the conservation area; roads, traffic and parking provision; residential amenity; and environmental concerns.
Planning officials had recommended approval stating: “The application site is within an existing residential area and, subject the appropriate use of conditions, the proposed development is acceptable in terms of design, density, access and parking provision, residential amenity, flooding and drainage and ecology.
“There are no material considerations which suggest that planning permission should not be granted, subject to the conclusion of a legal agreement relating to the contribution towards off-site play provision.”
The 50-year-old Greenock Academy building was demolished in 2015. It closed in 2011 when the school merged with Gourock High to form Clydeview Academy in Gourock.
The building gained a second career and became familiar to millions of TV viewers UK-wide when BBC school drama series Waterloo Road used it as a set and production base but filming finished in August 2014.
In Pictures: A Look Back At Waterloo Road Being Filmed At The Former Greenock Academy
In Pictures: A Look Back At Waterloo Road Filming On Location In Inverclyde
Former pupils marked the building’s half century with an event in September 2014.
The upper part of the Greenock Academy site was developed as a pre-five centre in 2018.
