A SHOP in Hereford's High Town has been told that it can expand into the unit next door.

Mountain Warehouse had to ask Herefordshire Council for planning permission and listed building consent before it could knock through into the old GAME unit next door, with that chain owned by Mike Ashley moving the new Sports Direct in Commercial Street.

But now council planners have given the go-ahead, meaning 12 and 13 High Town can be combined to give Mountain Warehouse a bigger shop.

With Utopia women's clothing shop ceasing trading in the former GAME unit next door, Mountain Warehouse, a shop specialising in outdoor clothing and equipment, wanted to expand and trade from the combined ground floor.

RELATED NEWS:

Plans said that to achieve this, Mountain Warehouse wanted to remove the concrete block dividing wall inserted at the time of its last subdivision.

It is also proposed to bring the basement area into operational use and the intention is to give full and beneficial use to this prominent listed building, consultants said.

Sign up for our free daily afternoon news briefing here and the day's top stories will be delivered straight to your inbox.

Three new doors are proposed for the back of the unit to allow dedicated access to the upper floors, and any changes to the shopfront would be covered with a separate planning application.

The Grade II-listed building was built as a pair of dwellings with ground-floor shops on the northern frontage of High Town, a heritage access statement submitted with the plans said.

OTHER NEWS:

It said the buildings constituted a redevelopment of earlier properties on the site which were cleared as the town prospered in the late 18th and 19th centuries.

In the 20th century, the ground floor shop units were revamped a number of times as different occupiers traded either singularly or across both floor plans in their entirety or in unequal measure.

Herefordshire Council planners approved the scheme, with conditions, on February 9.