PLANS to turn a former Oldham nightclub into apartments on a street populated by noisy late-night bars and clubs would force prospective residents to keep their windows closed, officers warn.

The council’s planning committee are to decide on whether to approve the creation of 12 flats in what was Scruples bar and nightclub on Yorkshire Street in the town centre.

The council’s environmental health department have concerns that the flats would be located in an area surrounded by late-night entertainment venues.

These are ‘known to generate significant levels of noise and disturbance would not ensure a suitable standard of living for future residents’, the department states.

The only effective way to mitigate against noisy patrons of other bars and clubs would be for residents to keep all their windows closed, they say.

Although shown as each containing double beds, officer Graham Dickman points out that the flats’ floor space does not meet the minimum government standards for two people living in the properties.

While they could have single beds instead, this would be difficult to control under the council’s planning rules and would be ‘in effect unenforceable’, his report adds.

Oldham Coliseum have also objected, pointing out that they use a roller shutter off Bartlam Place – where the entrance for four of the flats would be – to allow them to deliver scenery.

This takes place across the hours of 11pm until 4am mostly on Saturday nights, around 30 times a year, the theatre warns.

Mr Dickman does state in his report that the proposal would bring a vacant building back into use in a ‘highly sustainable location’, and would help diversify the housing supply in the borough.

“Residential use is not incompatible with the economic requirements of a thriving town centre and indeed the introduction of a resident population can itself enliven town centres and provide custom for local services,” he says.

But he adds that the premises will be subject to high levels of ambient noise at anti-social hours.

“It is inevitable that some significant disturbance to those residents at the rear of the site will result from the activities associated with the Coliseum, in particular where set changes take place in the early hours at a weekend.”

Mr Dickman concludes the development would not provide a ‘satisfactory level of accomodation’ for people living in the flats.

He says the applicant, Samrum Investments Ltd, has failed to demonstrate that future residents would not ‘endure an unacceptable loss of amenity’.

The applicant’s agent, Debtal Architecture Ltd, declined to comment on the report.