Fire-damaged Georgian hall to be redeveloped

A historic hall ravaged by fire a decade ago is set for a new lease of life after conversion plans cleared a major hurdle.

The bid to redevelop Grade II* listed Daresbury Hall into a residential complex comes after a blaze destroyed much of the 1759 manor near Warrington, Cheshire, in 2016.

Halton Council planning chiefs had backed an application to restore it but work could not start until final details had been signed off, including an agreement to mitigate the impact of the project on the surrounding area.

Now it has the green light, the hall itself will become home to eight apartments, with six built in stables and outbuildings and 31 properties on the wider grounds.

The 16-acre site is located in protected green belt, an area designed to guard against overdevelopment.

Conservation charity The Georgian Group had objected, stating that while it welcomed moves to repair and renovate the site, it had "significant concerns" over the extent of the planned demolition and partitioning of the house.

But planners felt the gains outweighed the concerns raised and the council's development management committee backed the scheme at a meeting last January, pending signing of the section 106 agreement - a legal deal signed by councils and developers designed to mitigate the impact of a project on the surrounding area.

With that agreement now in place, the department has provided final approval, with a long list of conditions the applicant will have to meet, the Local Democracy Reporting Service said.

These include providing more details on construction and demolition plans, completion of a remediation strategy, as well as further details on tree planting and pedestrian access.

The hall was built in the 18th Century and passed between private owners before becoming a military hospital during World War Two.

It was later a residential care home run by the charity Scope, before it closed in the 1990s.

a large cannabis farm was found in an annexe of the building before a fire badly damaged the Georgian stately home the following year.

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