Dalziel workspace transformation is hit with delay

Aug 21 2008 by Shirley Bartynek, Hamilton Advertiser

Site visit delay hits flats plan

PLANS to transform the Dalziel Workspace building into flats were this week hanging in the balance.

Councillors were last Thursday expected to rubber-stamp proposals which would see the CIS Ltd/Motherwell Town Centre Partnership demolish the former Dalziel Annexe School building to make way for 82 flats.

However, at a meeting of North Lanarkshire Council’s Planning and Transportation Committee councillors agreed to visit the site in the next few weeks and hold a hearing before deciding on the application.

The complex in Mason Street is better known now as the Dalziel Workspace and is a large three-storey building which was transformed into a business centre with office space and a workshop in the 1980s.

Under the latest plans, the applicants propose to demolish the existing building, retaining the existing stone wall and railing boundary to develop the site into flats with a provision for 108 parking spaces.

The flats would wrap around West Hamilton Street, Watson Street and Mason Street.

The planning application attracted one letter of objection from the Royal Mail Group.

They voiced their concerns in relation to their Post Office and delivery yard at 26 Brandon Arcade.

They objected on the grounds that the proposal would generate a significant increase in traffic to the already-busy area which they say in a report to the committee “would be to the detriment of the operation of Post Office delivery vehicles.”

They also expressed concern about the potential negative impact caused by construction work.

However, North Lanarkshire planning officials said in their report to the committee that “construction work is a natural consequence of development which can be effectively controlled through separate environmental health legislation.”

And they have recommended that the application be approved subject to the appropriate conditions.

Meanwhile police have arrested two youths after finding them inside the Dalziel Workspace building.

At 7pm on August 15 (last Friday) officers were called to the vacant centre in Mason Street.

On arrival they noticed the front door of the premises was smashed.

The officers entered the building where they arrested two youths aged 14 and 13 years old.

Both have been reported to the Reporter to the Children's Panel for theft by housebreaking.