December 20, 2021 3.47 pm This story is over 27 months old

New plans for former Post Office delivered to Boston council

New plans for shop/office and apartments
The former post office in Boston. | Image: Google Streetview

A developer wants to turn a historic former post office in Boston into flats, according to new plans.

Red Lion Bargate Ltd has applied to Boston Borough Council to change the use of the Grade II Listed Wide Bargate building into mixed uses, including a ground floor commercial space and 22 self-contained apartments.

The Post Office shut the building in 2013 and relocated to a smaller site in WH Smith and the building has sat empty ever since, despite plans being approved that year to change the use to a restaurant/drinking establishment and flats.

It was put up for sale by Savills and Bruce Mather Estate Agents in 2018.

In the new application, Red Lion said: “It is proposed to retain a commercial use on the ground floor of the building thereby ensuring that an active frontage is retained.

“The change of the remainder of the building to residential use will also contribute to the vitality and viability of the town centre as a whole, as it will increase the number of people living within it and reliant upon it for goods and services.

The proposed layout for the ground floor of the building showing the commercial space.

“It will also bring a listed building back into active use, thereby helping to preserve the building and the character and appearance of the Boston Conservation Area.”

They said that commercial use of the site as a whole was “unviable” adding: “Whilst the proposal will result in the loss of employment floor space it is material that the site has been vacant for several years and that parts of the building are in a state of physical decline.”